Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1867,  by 
L.  P.   BROCKETT, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  New  York. 


KING  &  BAIRD,  PRINTERS, 
607   Sansom  Street,   Philadelphia. 


WESTCOTT  &  THOMSON, 
Stereotypers. 


TO 


THE  LOYAL  WOMEN  OF  AMERICA, 

WHOSE  PATRIOTIC  CONTRIBUTIONS,  TOILS  AND  SACRIFICES,  ENABLED  THEIR 

SISTERS,  WHOSE  HISTORY  IS  HERE  RECORDED,  TO  MINISTER 

RELIEF  AND  CONSOLATION  TO  OUR  WOUNDED 

AND  SUFFERING  HEROES; 

AND  WHO  BY  THEIR   DEVOTION,  THEIR  LABORS,  AND  THEIR  PATIENT   ENDURANCE 

OF  PRIVATION  AND  DISTRESS  OF  BODY  AND  SPIRIT,  WHEN  CALLED 

TO  GIVE  UP  THEIR  BELOVED  ONES  FOR  THE 

NATION'S   DEFENSE, 

HAVE    WON    FOR    THEMSELVES    ETERNAL    HONOR,    AND    THE    UNDYING    REMEM 
BRANCE  OF  THE  PATRIOTS  OF  ALL  TIME, 

WE    DEDICATE    THIS 
VOLUME. 


PREFACE. 


THE  preparation  of  this  work,  or  rather  the  collection  of  material  ror  it, 
was  commenced  in  the  autumn  of  1863.  While  engaged  in  the  compilation 
of  a  little  book  on  "The  Philanthropic  Results  of  the  War"  for  circulation 
abroad,  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  the  writer  became  so  deeply  impressed 
with  the  extraordinary  sacrifices  and  devotion  of  loyal  women,  in  the  national 
cause,  that  he  determined  to  make  a  record  of  them  for  the  honor  of  his 
country.  A  voluminous  correspondence  then  commenced  and  continued  to 
the  present  time,  soon  demonstrated  how  general  were  the  acts  of  patriotic 
devotion,  and  an  extensive  tour,  undertaken  the  following  summer,  to  obtain 
by  personal  observation  and  intercourse  with  these  heroic  women,  a  more 
clear  and  comprehensive  idea  of  what  they  had  done  and  were  doing,  only 
.served  to  increase  his  admiration  for  their  zeal,  patience,  and  self-denying 
effort. 

Meantime  the  war  still  continued,  and  the  collisions  between  Grant  and  Lee, 
in  the  East,  and  Sherman  and  Johnston,  in  the  South,  the  fierce  campaign 
between  Thomas  and  Hood  in  Tennessee,  Sheridan's  annihilating  defeats 
of  Early  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  and  Wilson's  magnificent  expe 
dition  in  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Georgia,  as  well  as  the  mixed  naval 
and  military  victories  at  Mobile  and  Wilmington,  were  fruitful  in  wounds, 
sickness,  and  death.  Never  had  the  gentle  and  patient  ministrations  of 
woman  been  so  needful  as  in  the  last  year  of  the  war;  and  never  had  they 
been  so  abundantly  bestowed,  and  with  such  zeal  and  self-forgetfulness. 

From  Andersonville,  and  Millen,  from  Charleston,  and  Florence,  from 
Salisbury,  and  Wilmington,  from  Belle  Isle,  and  Libby  Prison,  came  also, 
in  these  later  months  of  the  war,  thousands  of  our  bravest  and  noblest 
heroes,  captured  by  the  rebels,  the  feeble  remnant  of  the  tens  of  thousands 
imprisoned  there,  a  majority  of  whom  had  perished  of  cold,  nakedness, 
starvation,  and  disease,  in  those  charnel  houses,  victims  of  the  fiendish 
malignity  of  the  rebel  leaders.  These  poor  fellows,  starved  to  the  last 
degree  of  emaciation,  crippled  and  dying  from  frost  and  gangrene,  many  of 


22  PREFACE. 

them  idiotic  from  their  sufferings,  or  with  the  fierce  fever  of  typhus,  more 
deadly  than  sword  or  minie  bullet,  raging  in  their  veins,  were  brought 
to  Annapolis  and  to  Wilmington,  and  unmindful  of  the  deadly  infection, 
gentle  and  tender  women  ministered  to  them  as  faithfully  and  lovingly, 
as  if  they  were  their  own  brothers.  Ever  and  anon,  in  these  works 
of  mercy,  one  of  these  fair  ministrants  died  a  martyr  to  her  faithful 
ness,  asking,  often  only,  to  be  buried  beside  her  "boys,"  but  the  work  never 
ceased  while  there  was  a  soldier  to  be  nursed.  Nor  were  these  the  only 
fields  in  which  noble  service  was  rendered  to  humanity  by  the  women  of 
our  time.  In  the  larger  associations  of  our  cities,  day  after  day,  and  year 
after  year,  women  served  in  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold,  at  their  desks, 
corresponding  with  auxiliary  aid  societies,  taking  account  of  goods  received 
for  sanitary  supplies,  re-packing  and  shipping  them  to  the  points  where 
they  were  needed,  inditing  and  sending  out  circulars  appealing  for  aid,  in 
work  more  prosaic  but  equally  needful  and  patriotic  with  that  performed  in 
the  hospitals;  and  throughout  every  village  and  hamlet  in  the  country, 
women  were  toiling,  contriving,  submitting  to  privation,  performing  unusual 
and  severe  labors,  all  for  the  soldiers.  In  the  general  hospitals  of  the  cities 
and  larger  towns,  the  labors  of  the  special  diet  kitchen,  and  of  the  hospi 
tal  nurse  were  performed  steadily,  faithfully,  and  uncomplainingly,  though 
there  also,  ever  and  anon,  some  fair  toiler  laid  down  her  life  in  the  service. 
There  were  many  too  in  still  other  fields  of  labor,  who  showed  their  love 
for  their  country;  the  faithful  women  who,  in  the  Philadelphia  Refresh 
ment  Saloons,  fed  the  hungry  soldier  on  his  way  to  or  from  the  battle-field, 
till  in  the  aggregate,  they  had  dispensed  nearly  eight  hundred  thousand 
meals,  and  had  cared  for  thousands  of  sick  and  wounded ;  the  matrons  of 
the  Soldiers'  Homes,  Lodges,  and  Rests;  the  heroic  souls  who  devoted 
themselves  to  the  noble  work  of  raising  a  nation  of  bondmen  to  intelligence 
and  freedom;  those  who  attempted  the  still  more  hopeless  task  of  rousing 
the  blunted  intellect  and  cultivating  the  moral  nature  of  the  degraded  and 
abject  poor  whites ;  and  those  who  in  circumstances  of  the  greatest  peril, 
manifested  their  fearless  and  undying  attachment  to  their  country  and  its 
flag ;  all  these  were  entitled  to  a  place  in  such  a  record.  What  wonder, 
then,  that,  pursuing  his  self-appointed  task  assiduously,  the  writer  found  it 
growing  upon  him ;  till  the  question  came,  not,  who  should  be  inscribed  in 
this  roll,  but  who  could  be  omitted,  since  it  was  evident  no  single  volume 
could  do  justice  to  all. 

In  the  autumn  of  1865,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  Vaughan,  a  skilful  and  practiced 
writer,  whose  tastes  and  sympathies  led  her  to  take  an  interest  in  the  work, 
became  associated  with  the  writer  ii  its  preparation,  and  to  her  zeal  in  col- 


PREFACE.  23 

lecting,  and  skill  in  arranging  the  materials  obtained,  many  of  the  interest 
ing  sketches  of  the  volume  are  due.  We  have  in  the  prosecution  of  our 
work  been  constantly  embarrassed,  by  the  reluctance  of  some  who  deserved 
a  prominent  place,  to  suffer  anything  to  be  communicated  concerning  their 
labors;  by  the  promises,  often  repeated  but  never  fulfilled,  of  others  to 
furnish  facts  and  incidents  which  they  alone  could  supply,  and  by  the  for 
wardness  of  a  few,  whose  services  were  of  the  least  moment,  in  presenting 
their  claims. 

We  have  endeavored  to  exercise  a  wise  and  careful  discrimination  both 
in  avoiding  the  introduction  of  any  name  unworthy  of  a  place  in  such  a 
record,  and  in  giving  the  due  meed  of  honor  to  those  who  have  wrought 
most  earnestly  and  acceptably.  We  cannot  hope  that  we  have  been  com 
pletely  successful ;  the  letters  even  now,  daily  received,  render  it  probable 
that  there  are  some,  as  faithful  and  self-sacrificing  as  any  of  those  whose 
services  we  have  recorded,  of  whom  we  have  failed  to  obtain  information ; 
and  that  some  of  those  who  entered  upon  their  work  of  mercy  in  the  closing 
campaigns  of  the  war,  by  their  zeal  and  earnestness,  have  won  the  right  to 
a  place.  We  have  not,  knowing^,  however,  omitted  the  name  of  any 
faithful  worker,  of  whom  we  could  obtain  information,  and  we  feel  assured 
that  our  record  is  far  more  full  and  complete,  than  any  other  which  has 
been,  or  is  likely  to  be  prepared,  and  that  the  number  of  prominent  and 
active  laborers  in  the  national  cause  who  have  escaped  our  notice  is  com 
paratively  small. 

We  take  pleasure  in  acknowledging  our  obligations  to  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows, 
President  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  for  many  services  and 
much  valuable  information;  to  Honorable  James  E.  Yeatman,  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  to  Rev.  J.  G-.  Forman,  late 
Secretary  of  that  Commission,  and  now  Secretary  of  the  Unitarian  Asso 
ciation,  and  his  accomplished  wife,  both  of  whom  were  indefatigable  in 
their  efforts  to  obtain  facts  relative  to  western  ladies;  to  Rev.  N.  M.  Mann, 
now  of  Kenosha,  Wisconsin,  but  formerly  Chaplain  and  Agent  of  the 
Western  Sanitary  Commission,  at  Vicksburg;  to  Professor  J.  S.  Newberry, 
now  of  Columbia  College,  but  through  the  war  the  able  Secretary  of  the 
Western  Department  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission ;  to  Mrs. 
M.  A.  Livermore,  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  managers  of  the  Northwestern 
Sanitary  Commission;  to  Rev.  G-.  S.  F.  Savage,  Secretary  of  the  Western 
Department  of  the  American  Tract  Society,  Boston,  Rev.  William  De 
Loss  Love,  of  Milwaukee,  author  of  a  work  on  "Wisconsin  in  the  War." 
Samuel  B.  Fales,  Esq. ,  of  Philadelphia,  so  long  and  nobly  identified  with 
the  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon,  Dr.  A.  N.  Read,  of  Norwalk,  Ohio, 


24  PREFACE. 

late  one  of  the  Medical  Inspectors  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  Di.  Joseph 
Parrish,  of  Philadelphia,  also  a  Medical  Inspector  of  the  Commission,  Mrs. 
M.  M.  Husband,  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  most  faithful  workers  in  field 
hospitals  during  the  war,  Miss  Katherine  P.  "Wormeley,  of  Newport,  Rhode 
Island,  the  accomplished  historian  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  Mrs.  W. 
II.  Holstein,  of  Bridgeport,  Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania,  Miss  Maria 
M.  C.  Hall,  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  and  Miss  Louise  Tit- 
comb,  of  Portland,  Maine.  Prom  many  of  these  we  have  received  infor 
mation  indispensable  to  the  completeness  and  success  of  our  work ;  infor 
mation  too,  often  afforded  at  great  inconvenience  and  labor.  We  commit 
our  book,  then,  to  the  loyal  women  of  our  country,  as  an  earnest  and  con 
scientious  effort  to  portray  some  phases  of  a  heroism  which  will  make 
American  women  famous  in  all  the  future  ages  of  history ;  and  with  the 
full  conviction  that  thousands  more  only  lacked  the  opportunity,  not  the 
will  or  endurance,  to  do,  in  the  same  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  what  these  have 
done. 

L.  P.  B. 
BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.,  February,  1867. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

DEDICATION 3 

PREFACE 6 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION  BY  HENRY  W.  BELLOWS,  D.  D 

INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 

Patriotism  in  some  form,  an  attribute  of  woman  in  all  nations  and  climes — Its  modes  of  mani 
festation — Pffians  for  victory — Lamentations  for  the  death  of  a  heroic  leader — Personal 
leadership  by  women — The  assassination  of  tyrants — The  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of 
national  armies — The  hospitals  established  by  the  Empress  Helena — The  Beguines  and 
their  successors — The  cantinieres,  vivandieres,  etc. — Other  modes  in  which  women  mani 
fested  their  patriotism — Florence  Nightingale  and  her  labors — The  results — The  awakening 
of  patriotic  zeal  among  American  women  at  the  opening  of  the  war — The  organization 
of  philanthropic  effort — Hospital  nurses — Miss  Dix's  rejection  of  great  numbers  of  appli 
cants  on  account  of  youth — Hired  nurses — Their  services  generally  prompted  by  patriotism 
rather  than  pay — The  State  relief  agents  (ladies)  at  Washington — The  hospital  transport 
system  of  the  Sanitary  Commission — Mrs.  Harris's,  Miss  Barton's,  Mrs.  Fales',  Miss  Gilson's, 
and  other  ladies'  services  at  the  front  during  the  battles  of  1862 — Services  of  other  ladies  at 
Chancellorsville,  at  Gettysburg — The  Field  Relief  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  services 
of  ladies  in  the  later  battles — Voluntary  services  of  women  in  the  armies  in  the  field  at 
the  West — Services  in  the  hospitals  of  garrisons  and  fortified  towns — Soldiers'  homes  and 
lodges,  and  their  matrons — Homes  for  Refugees — Instruction  of  the  Freedmen — Refresh 
ment  Saloons  at  Philadelphia — Regular  visiting  of  hospitals  in  the  large  cities — The  Sol 
diers'  Aid  Societies,  and  their  mode  of  operation — The  extraordinary  labors  of  the  managers 
of  the  Branch  Societies — Government  clothing  contracts — Mrs.  Springer,  Miss  Wormeley 
and  Miss  Gilson — The  managers  of  the  local  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies — The  sacrifices  made  by 
the  poor  to  contribute  supplies — Examples — The  labors  of  the  young  and  the  old — Inscrip 
tions  on  articles — The  poor  seamstress — Five  hundred  bushels  of  wheat — The  five  dollar 
gold  piece— The  army  of  martyrs— The  effect  of  this  female  patriotism  in  stimulating  .the 
courage  of  the  soldiers — Lack  of  persistence  in  this  work  among  the  Women  of  the 
South — Present  and  future — Effect  of  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  in  elevating  and  enno 
bling  the  female  character 65-94 

PART  I.    SUPERINTENDENT  OF  NURSES. 
MISS   DOROTHEA   L.    DIX. 

Early  history — Becomes  interested  in  the  condition  of  prison  convicts — Visit  to  Europe — Returns 
in  1807,  and  devotes  herself  to  improving  the  condition  of  paupers,  lunatics  and  prisoners — 
4  25 


26  CONTEXTS. 

PAOB 

Her  efforts  for  the  establishment  of  Insane  Asylums — Second  visit  to  Europe — Her  first 
work  in  the  war  the  nursing  of  Massachusetts  soldiers  in  Baltimore — Appointment  aa 
superintendent  of  nurses — Her  selections — Difficulties  in  her  position — Her  other  duties — 
Mrs.  Livermore's  account  of  her  labors — The  adjutant-general's  order — Dr.  Bellows'  esti 
mate  of  her  work — Her  kindness  to  her  mirses— Her  publications — Her  manners  and  ad 
dress — Labors  for  the  insane  poor  since  the  war 97-108 


PAET    II.      LADIES    WHO    MINISTEEED    TO    THE     SICK    AND 
WOUNDED  IN  CAMP,  FIELD,  AND  GENERAL  HOSPITALS. 

CLARA   HARLOWE   BARTON. 

Early  life— Teaching — The  Bordentown  school — Obtains  a  situation  in  the  Patent  Office — Her 
readiness  to  help  others — Her  native  genius  for  nursing — Removed  from  office  in  1857 — 
Return  to  Washington  in  1861 — Nursing  and  providing  for  Massachusetts  soldiers  at  the 
Capitol  in  April,  1861— Hospital  and  sanitary  work  in  1861— Death  of  her  father— Wash 
ington  hospitals  again — Going  to  the  front — Cedar  Mountain — The  second  Bull  Run  battle — 
Cfcantilly — Heroic  labors  at  Antietam — Soft  bread — Three  barrels  of  flour  and  a  bag  of 
salt — Thirty  lanterns  for  that  night  of  gloom — The  race  for  Fredericksburg — Miss  Barton 
as  a  general  purveyor  for  the  sick  and  wounded — The  battle  of  Fredericksburg — Under 
fire — The  rebel  officer's  appeal — The  "  confiscated"  carpet — After  the  battle— In  the  depart 
ment  of  tho  South — The  sands  of  Morris  Island — The  horrors  of  the  siege  of  Forts  Wagner 
and  Sumter — The  reason  why  she  went  thither — Return  to  the  North — Preparations  for 
the  great  campaign — Her  labors  at  Belle  Plain,  Fredericksburg,  White  House,  and  City 
Point — Return  to  Washington — Appointed  "  General  correspondent  for  the  friends  of  pa 
roled  prisoners" — Her  residence  at  Annapolis — Obstacles — The  Annapolis  plan  abandoned — 
She  establishes  at  Washington  a  "  Bureau  of  records  of  missing  men  in  the  armies  of  the 
United  States" — The  plan  of  operations  of  this  Bureau — Her  visit  to  Andersonville — The 
case  of  Dorrance  Atwater — The  Bureati  of  missing  men  an  institution  indispensable  to  the 
Government  and  to  friends  of  the  soldiers — Her  sacrifices  in  maintaining  it — The  grant 
from  Congress — Personal  appearance  of  Miss  Barton 111-132 


HELEN   LOUISE    GILSON. 

Early  history — Her  first  work  for  the  soldiers — 'Collecting  supplies — The  clothing  contract- 
Providing  for  soldiers'  wives  and  daughters — Application  to  Miss  Dix  for  an  appointment  aa 
nurse — She  is  rejected  as  too  young — Associated  with  Hon.  Frank  B.  Fay  in  the  Auxi 
liary  Relief  Service — Her  labors  on  the  Hospital  Transports — Her  manner  of  working — 
Her  extraordinary  personal  influence — Her  work  at  Gettysburg — Influence  over  the  men — 
Carrying  a  sick  comrade  to  the  hospital — Her  system  and  self-possession — Pleading  the 
cause  of  the  soldier  with  the  people — Her  services  in  Grant's  protracted  campaign — The 
hospitals  at  Fredericksburg — Singing  to  the  soldiers — Her  visit  to  the  barge  of  "contra 
bands" — Her  address  to  the  negroes — Singing  to  them — The  hospital  for  colored  soldiers — 
Miss  Gilson  re-organizes  and  re-models  it,  making  it  the  best  hospital  at  City  Point — Her 
labors  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  men  in  her  hospital — Her  care  for  the  negro  washer- 
•  women  and  their  families — Completion  of  her  work — Personal  appearance  of  Misa 
Gilson ...  133-148 


CONTEXTS.  27 

MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS. 

PACK 

Previous  history— Secretary  Ladies'  Aid  Society— Her  decision  to  go  to  the  "  front"— Early 
experiences — On  the  Hospital  Transports — Harrison's  Landing — Her  garments  soaked  in 
human  gore — Antietam — French's  Division  Hospital — Smoketown  General  Hospital Re 
turn  to  the  "  front"— Fredericksburg— Falmouth— She  almost  despairs  of  the  success  of  our 
arms— Chancellorsville— Gettysburg— Following  the  troops— Warrenton— Insolence  of  the 
rebels — Illness — Goes  to  the  West — Chattanooga — Serious  illness — Return  to  Nashville — 
Labors  for  the  refugees — Called  home  to  watch  over  a  dying  mother — The  returned  prison 
ers  from  Andersonville  and  Salisbury ,..  149-160 


MRS.    ELIZA    C.    PORTER. 

Mrs.  Porter's  social  position— Her  patriotism — Labors  in  the  hospitals  at  Cairo — She  takes 
charge  of  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission  Rooms  at  Chicago — Her  determination 
to  go,  with  a  corps  of  nurses,  to  the  front— Cairo  and  Paducah— Visit  to  Pittsburg  Landing 
after  the  battle — She  brings  nurses  and  supplies  for  the  hospitals  from  Chicago — At 
Corinth — At  Memphis — Work  among  the  freedmen  at  Memphis  and  elsewhere — Efforts 
for  the  establishment  of  hospitals  for  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  Northwest— Co-operation 
with  Mrs.  Harvey  and  Mrs.  Howe — The  Harvey  Hospital — At  Natchez  and  Vicksburg — 
Other  appeals  for  Northern  hospitals — At  Huntsville  with  Mrs.  Bickerdyke — At  Chatta 
nooga—Experiences  in  a  field  hospital  in  the  woods— Following  Sherman's  army  from 
Chattanooga  to  Atlanta — "  This  seems  like  having  mother  about" — Constant  labors — The 
distribution  of  supplies  to  the  soldiers  of  Sherman's  army  near  Washington — A  patriotic 
family 161-171 


MRS.    MARY    A.    BICKERDYKE. 

Previous  history  of  Mrs.  Bickerdyke — Her  regard  for  the  private  soldiers — "  Mother  Bicker- 
dyke  and  her  boys" — Her  work  at  Savannah  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh — What  she  accom 
plished  at  Perryville — The  Gayoso  Hospital  at  Memphis — Colored  nurses  and  attendants — 
A  model  hospital — The  delinquent  assistant-surgeon — Mrs.  Bickerdyke's  philippic — She 
procures  his  dismissal — His  interview  with  General  Sherman — "She  ranks  me" — The  com 
manding  generals  appreciate  her — Convalescent  soldiers  vs.  colored  nurses — The  Medical 
Director's  order — Mrs.  Bickerdyke's  triumph — A  dairy  and  hennery  for  the  hospitals — Two 
hundred  cows  and  a  thousand  hens — Her  first  visit  to  the  Milwaukee  Chamber  of  Com 
merce — "Go  over  to  Canada — This  country  has  no  place  for  such  creatures" — At  Vicks 
burg — In  field  hospitals— The  dresses  riddled  with  sparks — The  box  of  clothing  for  her 
self—Trading  for  butter  and  eggs  for  the  soldiers — The  two  lace-trimmed  night-dresses — A 
new  style  of  hospital  clothing  for  wounded  soldiers — A  second  visit  to  Milwaukee — Mrs. 
Bickerdyke's  speech— "  Set  your  standard  higher  yet"— In  the  Huntsville  Hospital— At 
Chattanooga  at  the  close  of  the  battle — The  only  woman  on  the  ground  for  four  weeks — 
Cooking  under  difficulties — Her  interview  with  General  Grant — Complaints  of  the  neglect 
of  the  men  by  some  of  the  surgeons — "  Go  around  to  the  hospitals  and  see  for  yourself" — 
Visits  Huntsville,  Pulaski,  etc — With  Sherman  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta — Making 
dishes  for  the  sick  out, of  hard  tack  and  the  ordinary  rations— At  Nashville  and  Franklin- 
Through  the  Carolines  with  Sherman— Distribution  of  supplies  near  Washington— "  The 
Freedmen's  Home  and  Refuge"  at  Chicago 172-186 


28  CONTENTS. 

MARGARET  ELIZABETH  BRECKINRIDGE.    By  Mrs.  J.    G.  Forman. 

PAGE 

Sketch  of  her  personal  appearance — Her  gentle,  tender,  winning  ways — The  American  Florence 
Nightingale — What  if  I  do  die? — The  Breckinridge  family — Margaret's  childhood  and 
youth — Her  emancipation  of  her  slaves — Working  for  the  soldiers  early  in  the  war — Not 
one  of  the  Home  Guards — Her  earnest  desire  to  labor  in  the  hospitals — Hospital  service  at 
Baltimore — At  Lexington,  Kentucky — Morgan's  first  raid — Her  visit  to  the  wounded  sol 
diers — "  Every  one  of  you  bring  a  regiment  with  you" — Visiting  the  St.  Louis  hospitals — 
On  the  hospital  boats  on  the  Mississippi — Perils  of  the  voyage — Severe  and  incessant  labor — 
The  contrabands  at  Helena — Touching  incidents  of  the  wounded  on  the  hospital  boats — 
"  The  service  pays" — In  the  hospitals  at  St.  Louis — Impaired  health — She  goes  eastward  for 
rest  and  recovery — A  year  of  -weakness  and  weariness — In  the  hospital  at  Philadelphia — A 
ministering  angel — Colonel  Porter  her  brother-in-law  killed  at  Cold  Harbor— She  goes  to 
Baltimore  to  meet  the  body — Is  seized  with  typhoid  fever  and  dies  after  five  weeks 
illness 187-199 

MRS.  STEPHEN   BARKER. 

Family  of  Mrs.  Barker — Her  husband  Chaplain  'of  First  Massachusetts  Heavy  Artillery — She 
accompanies  him  to  Washington — Devotes  herself  to  the  work  of  visiting  the  hospitals — 
Thanksgiving  dinner  in  the  hospital — She  removes  to  Fort  Albany  and  takes  charge  aa 
Matron  of  the  Regimental  Hospital — Pleasant  experiences — Reading  to  the  soldiers — Two 
years  of  labor — Return  to  Washington  in  January,  1864 — She  becomes  one  of  the  hospital 
visitors  of  the  Sanitary  Commission — Ten  hospitals  a  week — Remitting  the  soldiers'  money 
and  valuables  to  their  families — The  service  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barker  as  lecturers  and  mis 
sionaries  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  to  the  Aid  Societies  in  the  smaller  cities  and  villages — 
The  distribution  of  supplies  to  the  disbanding  armies — Her  report 200-211 

AMY    M.    BRADLEY. 

Childhood  of  Miss  Bradley— Her  experiences  as  a  teacher— Residence  in  Charleston,  South 
Carolina — Two  years  of  illness — Goes  to  Costa  Rica — Three  years  of  teaching  in  Central 
America — Return  to  the  United  States — Becomes  corresponding  clerk  and  translator  in  a 
large  glass  manufactory — Beginning  of  the  war — She  determines  to  go  as  a  nurse — Writes 
to  Dr.  Palmer — His  quaint  reply — Her  first  experience  as  nurse  in  a  regimental  hospital — 
Skill  and  tact  in  managing  it — Promoted  by  General  Slocum  to  the  charge  of  the  Brigade 
Hospital — Hospital  Transport  Service — Over-exertion  and  need  of  rest — The  organization 
of  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Washington — Visiting  hospitals  at  her  leisure — Camp  Misery — 
Wretched  condition  of  the  men — The  rendezvous  of  distribution — Miss  Bradley  goes  thither 
as  Sanitary  Commission  Agent — Her  zealous  and  multifarious  labors — Bringing  in  the  dis 
charged  men  for  their  papers — Procuring  the  correction  of  their  papers,  and  the  reinstate 
ment  of  the  men — "  The  Soldiers'  Journal" — Miss  Bradley's  object  in  its  establishment — Its 
success — Presents  to  Miss  Bradley — Personal  appearance 212-224 

MRS.  ARABELLA    GRIFFITH    BARLOW. 

Birth  and  education  of  Mrs.  Griffith — Her  marriage  at  the  beginning  of  the  war — She  accompa 
nies  her  husband  to  the  camp,  and  wherever  it  is  possible  ministers  to  the  wounded  or  sick 
soldiers— Joins  the  Sanitary  Commission  in  July,  1862,  and  labors  among  the  sick  and 
wounded  at  Harrison's  Landing  till  late  in  August — Colonel  Barlow  severely  wounded  at 
Autietam — Mrs.  Barlow  nurses  him  with  great  tenderness,  and  at  the  same  time  ministers 


CONTEXTS,  29 

PAGE 

to  the  w  )uncled  of  Sedgwick  Hospital  —  At  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg  —  General  Barlow 
again  wounded,  and  in  the  enemy's  lines  —  She  removes  him  and  succors  the  wounded  in 
the  intervals  of  her  care  of  him  —  In  May,  1864,  she  was  actively  engaged  at  Belle  Plain, 
Frederickslmrg,  Port  Royal,  White  House,  and  City  Point  —  Her  incessant  labor  brought  on 
fever  and  caused  her  death  July  27,  1864  —  Tribute  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  Bulletin, 
Dr.  Lieber  and  others,  to  her  memory  ......................................................................  225-232 


MRS.  NELLIE    MARIA    TAYLOR. 

Parentage  and  early  history  —  Removal  to  New  Orleans  —  Her  son  urged  to  enlist  in  the  rebel 
army  —  He  is  sent  North  —  The  rebels  persecute  Mrs.  Taylor  —  Her  dismissal  from  her  posi 
tion  as  principal  of  one  of  the  city  schools  —  Her  house  mobbed  —  "I  am  for  the  Union,  tear 
my  house  down  if  you  choose  !"  —  Her  house  searched  seven  times  for  the  flag  —  The  Judge's 
son  —  "  A  piece  of  Southern  chivalry"  —  Her  son  enlists  in  the  rebel  army  to  save  her  from 
molestation  —  New  Orleans  occupied  by  the  Union  forces  —  Mrs.  Taylor  reinstated  as  teacher  — 
She  nurses  the  soldiers  in  the  hospitals,  during  her  vacations  and  in  all  the  leisure  hours 
from  her  school  duties,  her  daughter  filling  up  the  intermediate  time  with  her  services  — 
She  expends  her  entire  salary  upon  the  sick  and  wounded  —  Writes  eleven  hundred  and 
seventy-four  letters  for  them  in  one  year  —  Distributes  the  supplies  received  from  the  Cin 
cinnati  Branch  of  Sanitary  Commission  in  1864,  and  during  the  summer  takes  the  manage 
ment  of  the  special  diet  of  the  University  Hospital  —  Testimony  of  the  soldiers  to  her 
labors  —  Patriotism  and  zeal  of  her  children  —  Terms  on  which  Miss  Alice  Taylor  would  pre 
sent  a  confederate  flag  to  a  company  ........................................................................  234-240 

MRS.  ADALINE    TYLER. 

Residence  in  Boston  —  Removal  to  Baltimore  —  Becomes  Superintendent  of  a  Protestant  Sister 
hood  in  that  city—  Duties  of  the  Sisterhood—  The  "  Church  Home"—  Other  duties  of  '•  Sister" 
Tyler  —  The  opening  of  the  war  —  The  Baltimore  mob  —  Wounding  and  killing  members  of 
the  Sixth  Massachusetts  regiment  —  Mrs.  Tyler  hears  that  Massachusetts  men  are  wounded 
and  seeks  admission  to  them  —  Is  refused  —  She  persists,  and  threatening  an  appeal  to  Gover 
nor  Andrew  is  finally  admitted  —  She  takes  those  most  severely  wounded  to  the  "  Church 
Home,"  procures  surgical  attendance  for  them,  and  nurses  them  till  their  recovery—  Other 
Union  wounded  nursed  by  her  —  Receives  the  thanks  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  and 
Governor  —  Is  appointed  Superintendent  of  the  Camden  Street  Hospital,  Baltimore  —  Resigns 
at  the  end  of  a  year,  and  visits  New  York—  The  surgeon-general  urges  her  to  take  charge  of 
the  large  hospital  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania—  She  remains  at  Chester  till  the  hospital  is 
broken  up,  when  she  is  transferred  to  the  First  Division  General  Hospital,  Naval  Academy, 
Annapolis  —  The  returned  prisoners  —  Their  terrible  condition  —  Mrs.  Tyler  procures  photo 
graphs  of  them  —  Impaired  health  —  Resignation  —  She  visits  Europe,  and  spends  eighteen 
months  there,  advocating  as  she  has  opportunity  the  National  cause  —  The  fiendish  rebel 
spirit  —  Incident  relative  to  President  Lincoln's  assassination  ......................................  241-250 

MRS.   WILLIAM    H.  HOLSTEIN. 

Social  position  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  —  Early  labors  for  the  soldiers  at  home—  The  battle  of 
Antietam  —  She  goes  with  her  husband  to  care  for  the  wounded  —  Her  first  emotions  at  the 
sight  of  the  wounded  —  Three  years'  devotion  to  the  service  —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  devote 
themselves  mainly  to  field  hospitals  —  Labors  at  Fredericksburg,  in  the  Second  Corps  Hos 
pital  —  Services  after  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  —  The  march  toward  Pennsylvania  in 


30  CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

June,  1863 — The  Field  Hospital  of  the  Second  Corps  after  Gettysburg — Incidents — 
"Wouldn't  be  buried  by  the  side  of  that  raw  recruit" — Mrs.  Holstein  Matron  of  the 
Second  Corps  Hospital — Tour  among  the  Aid  Societies — The  campaign  of  1864-5 — Constant 
labors  in  the  field  hospitals  at  Fredericksburg,  City  Point,  and  elsewhere,  till  November — 
Another  tour  among  the  Aid  Societies — Labors  among  the  returned  prisoners  at  Anna 
polis 251-259 

MRS.  CORDELIA  A.  p.  HARVEY.     By  Rev.  N.  M.  Mann. 

The  death  of  her  husband,  Governor  Louis  P.  Harvey — Her  intense  grief— She  resolves  to  devote 
herself  to  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers— She  visits  St.  Louis  as  Agent  for  the 
State  of  Wisconsin— Work  in  the  St.  Louis  hospitals  in  the  autumn  of  1862— Heroic  labors 
at  Cape  Girardeau — Visiting  hospitals  along  the  Mississippi — The  soldiers'  ideas  of  her 
influence  and  power — Young's  Point  in  1863 — Illness  of  Mrs.  Harvey — She  determines  to 
secure  the  establishment  of  a  General  Hospital  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  where  from  the  fine 
climate  the  chances  of  recovery  of  the  sick  and  wounded  will  be  increased — Her  resolution 
and  energy — The  Harvey  Hospital — The  removal  of  the  patients  at  Fort  Pickering  to  it — 
Repeated  journeys  down  the  Mississippi — Presented  with  an  elegant  watch  by  the  Second 
Wisconsin  Cavalry — Her  influence  over  the  soldiers — The  Soldiers'  Orphan  Asylum  at 
Madison 260-268 

MRS.  SARAH    R.  JOHNSTON. 

Loyal  Southern  women — Mrs.  Johnston's  birth  and  social  position — Her  interest  in  the  Union 
prisoners — "  A  Yankee  sympathizer" — The  young  soldier — Her  tender  care  of  him,  living 
and  dead — Work  for  the  prisoners — Her  persecution  by  the  rebels — "  Why  don't  you  pin 
me  to  the  earth  as  you  threatened" — "  Sergeant,  you  can't  make  anything  on  that  woman" — 
Copying  the  inscriptions  on  Union  graves,  and  statistics  of  Union  prisoners — Her  visit  to 
the  North 269-272 

EMILY  E.  PARSONS.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  Forman. 

Her  birth  and  education— Her  preparation  for  service  in  the  hospitals— Receives  instruction  in 
the  care  of  the  sick,  dressing  wounds,  preparation  of  diet,  etc— Service  at  Fort  Schuyler 
Hospital— Mrs.  General  Fremont  secures  her  services  for  St.  Louis— Condition  of  St.  Louis 
and  the  other  river  cities  at  this  time — First  assigned  to  the  Lawson  Hospital — Next  to 
Hospital  steamer  "  City  of  Alton" — The  voyage  from  Vicksburg  to  Memphis — Return  to  St. 
Louis — Illness — Appointed  Superintendent  of  Nurses  to  the  large  Bentou  Barracks  Hos 
pital—Her  duties— The  admirable  management  of  the  hospital— Visit  to  the  East— Return 
to  her  work— Illness  and  return  to  the  East— Collects  and  forwards  supplies  to  Western 
Sanitary  Commission  and  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission— The  Chicago  Fair— The 
Charity  Hospital  at  Cambridge  established  by  her— Her  cheerfulness  and  skill  in  her  hos 
pital  work 273-278 


MRS.   ALMIRA    FALES. 

The  first  woman  to  work  for  the  soldiers — She  commenced  in  December,  1860 — Her  continuous 
service — Amount  of  stores  distributed  by  her — Variety  and  severity  of  her  work — Hospital 
Transport  Service — Harrison's  Landing — Her  work  in  Pope's  campaign — Death  of  her  son — 
Her  sorrowful  toil  at  Fredericksburg  aud  Falmouth — Her  peculiarities  and  humor 279-283 


CONTEXTS.  31 

CORNELIA   HANCOCK. 

PAGE 

Early  labors  for  the  soldiers — Mr.  Vassar's  testimony — Gettysburg-  The  campaign  of  1864 — 
Fredericksburg  and  City  Point 284-286 

MRS.  MARY   MORRIS   HUSBAND. 

Her  ancestry— Patriotic  instincts  of  the  family— Service  in  Philadelphia  hospitals— Harrison's 
Landing — Nursing  a  sick  son — Ministers  to  others  there — Dr.  Mainland's  testimony — At 
Camden  Street  Hospital,  Baltimore — Antietam — Smoketown  Hospital — Associated  with 
Miss  M.  M.  C.  Hall — Her  admirable  services  as  nurse  there — Her  personal  appearance— 
The  wonderful  apron  with  its  pockets— The  battle-flag — Her  heroism  in  contagious  dis 
ease — Attachment  of  the  soldiers  for  her — Her  energy  and  activity — Her  adventures  after 
the  battle  of  Chancellorsville— The  Field  Hospital  near  United  States  Ford — The  forgetful 
surgeon — Matron  of  Third  Division,  Third  Corps  Hospital,  Gettysburg — Camp  Letterman — 
Illness  of  Mrs.  Husband — Stationed  at  Camp  Parole,  Annapolis— Hospital  at  Brandy  Sta 
tion — The  battles  of  the  Wilderness  and  Spotsylvania — Overwhelming  labor  at  Fredericks- 
burg,  Port  Royal,  White  House,  and  City  Point — Second  Corps  Hospital  at  City  Point — 
Marching  through  Richmond — "  Hurrah  for  mother  Husband" — The  visit  to  her  "  boys"  at 
Bailey's  Cross  Roads — Distribution  of  supplies — Mrs.  Husband's  labors  for  the  pardon  or 
commutation  of  the  sentence  of  soldiers  condemned  by  ci>urt-ni;trtial — Her  museum  and  its 
treasures 287-293 

THE   HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE. 

The  organization  of  this  service  by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission — Difficulties  en 
countered — Steamers  and  sailing  vessels  employed — The  corps  of  ladies  employed  in  the 
service — The  headquarters'  staff— Ladies  plying  on  the  Transports  to  Washington,  Balti 
more,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  elsewhere — Work  on  the  Daniel  Webster — The  Ocean 
Queen — Difficulties  in  providing  as  rapidly  as  was  desired  for  the  numerous  patients — Duties 
of  the  ladies  who  belonged  to  the  headquarters'  staff— Description  of  scenes  in  the  work  by 
Miss  Wormeley  and  Miss  G.  Woolsey — Taking  on  patients — "  Butter  on  soft  bread" — "  Guess 
I  can  stand  h'isting  better'n  him" — "  Spare  the  darning  needles" — "  Slippers  only  fit  for 
pontoon  bridges" — Visiting  Government  Transports — Scrambling  eggs  in  a  wash-basin — 
Subduing  the  captain  of  a  tug — The  battle  of  Fair  Oaks — Bad  management  on  Government 
Transports — Sufferings  of  the  wounded — Sanitary  Commission  relief  tent  at  the  wharf — 
Relief  tents  at  White  House  depot  at  Savage's  Station— The  departure  from  White  House- 
Arrival  at  Harrison's  Landiing — Running  past  the  rebel  batteries  at  City  Point — "I'll  take 
those  mattresses  you  spoke  of" — The  wounded  of  the  seven  days'  battles — "  You  are  so 
kind,  I — am  so  weak" — Exchanging  prisoners  under  flag  of  truce 2J9-315 

OTHER    LABORS    OF   SOME    OF    THE    MEMBERS    OF   THE    HOSPITAL 
TRANSPORT   CORPS. 

Miss  Bradley,  Miss  Gilson,  Mrs.  Husband,  Miss  Charlotte  Bradford,  Mrs.  W.  P.  Griffin,  Miss  II. 
D.  Whetten 316,317 

KATHERINE   PRESCOTT   WORMELEY. 

Birth  and  parentage — Commencement  of  her  labors  for  the  soldiers — The  Woman's  Union  Aid 
Society  of  Newport — She  takes  a  contract  for  army  clothing  to  furnish  employment  for 


6'2  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

soldiers'  families — Forwarding  sanitary  goods — The  hundred  and  fifty  bed  sacks — Miss 
Wormeley's  connection  with  the  Hospital  Transport  Service — H«r  extraordinary. labors — 
Illness— Is  appointed  Lady  Superintendent  of  the  Lovell  General  Hospital  at  Portsmouth 
Grove,  Rhode  Island— Her  duties— Resigns  in  October,  1863— Her  volume—"  The  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission"— Other  labors  for  the  soldiers 318-323 

THE   MISSES   WOOLSEY. 

Social  position  of  the  Woolsey  sisters — Mrs.  Joseph  Howland  and  her  labors  on  the  Hospital 
Transport — Her  tender  and  skilful  nursing  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of  her  husband's  regi 
ment — Poem  addressed  to  her  by  a  soldier — Her  encouragement  and  assistance  to  the 
women  nurses  appointed  by  Miss  Dix — Mrs.  Robert  S.  Howland — Her  labors  in  the  hospitals 
and  at  the  Metropolitan  Sanitary  Fair — Her  early  death  from  over-exertion  in  connection 
with  the  fair — Her  poetical  contributions  to  the  National  cause — "In  the  hospital" — Miss 
Georgiana  M.  Woolsey — Labors  on  Hospital  Transports — At  Portsmouth  Grove  Hospital — 
After  Chancellorsville — Her  work  at  Gettysburg  with  her  mother — "Three  weeks  at  Gettys 
burg" — The  approach  to  the  battle-field — The  Sanitary  Commission's  Lodge  near  the  rail 
road  depot — The  supply  tent — Crutches— Supplying  rebels  and  Union  men  alike — Dressing 
wounds — "On  dress  parade" — "Bread  with  butter  on  it  and  jelly  on  the  butter" — "Worth  a 
penny  a  sniff" — The  Gettysburg  women — The  Gettysburg  farmers — "  Had  never  seen  a 
rebel" — "A  feller  might' er  got  hit" — "I  couldn't  leave  my  bread" — The  dying  soldiers — 
"  Tell  her  I  love  her" — The  young  rebel  lieutenant — The  colored  freedmen — Praying  for 
"Massa  Lincoln" — The  purple  and  blue  and  yellow  handkerchiefs — "Only  a  blue  one'' — 
"The  man  who  screamed  so" — The  German  mother — The  Oregon  lieutenant — "Soup" — 
"  Put  some  meat  in  a  little  water  and  stirred  it  round" — Miss  Woolsey's  rare  capacities  for 
her  work — Estimate  of  a  lady  friend — Miss  Jane  Stuart  Woolsey — Labors  in  hospitals — Her 
charge  of  the  Freedmen  at  Richmond — Miss  Sarah  C.  Woolsey,  at  Portsmouth  Grove 
Hospital 324-342 


ANNA   MARIA   ROSS. 

Her  parentage  and  family — Early  devotion  to  works  of  charity  and  benevolence — Praying  for 
success  in  soliciting  aid  for  the  unfortunate — The  "  black  small-pox" — The  conductor's 
wife — The  Cooper  Shop  Hospital — Her  incessant  labors  and  tender  care  of  her  patients — 
Her  thoughtfulness  for  them  when  discharged — Her  unselfish  devotion  to  the  good  of 
others — Sending  a  soldier  to  his  friends — "  He  must  go  or  die" — The  attachment  of  the  sol 
diers  to  her — The  home  for  discharged  soldiers — Her  efforts  to  provide  the  funds  for  it — Her 
success — The  walk  to  South  Street — Her  sudden  attack  of  paralysis  and  death — The  monu 
ment  and  its  inscription 343-351 


MRS.   G.   T.   M.   DAVIS. 

Mrs.  Davis  a  native  of  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts— A  patriotic  family— General  Bartlett— She  be 
comes  Secretary  of  the  Park  Barracks  Ladies'  Association — The  Bedloe's  Island  Hospital — 
The  controversy — Discharge  of  the  surgeon — Withdrawal  from  the  Association — The  hos 
pital  at  David's  Island — Mrs.  Davis's  labors  there— The  Soldiers'  Rest  on  Howard  Street — 
She  becomes  the  Secretary  of  the  Ladies'  Association  connected  with  it — Visits  to  other 
hospitals — Gratitude  of  the  men  to  whom  she  has  ministered — Appeals  to  the  women  of 
Berkshire — Her  encomiums  on  their  abundant  labors 352-356 


CONTEXTS.  3o 

MARY    J.    SAFFORD. 

PAGU 

Miss  Safford  a  native  of  Vermont,  but  a  resident  of  Cairo — Her  thorough  and  extensive  mental 
culture — She  organizes  temporary  hospitals  among  the  regiments  stationed  at  Cairo— Visit 
ing  the  wounded  on  the  field  after  the  battle  of  Belmont — Her  extemporized  flag  of  truce — 
Her  remarkable  and  excessive  labors  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh— On  the  Hospital  steamers— 
Among  the  hospitals  at  Cairo — "  A  merry  Christmas"  for  the  soldiers  stationed  at  Cairo — 
Illness  induced  by  her  over-exertion — Her  tour  in  Europe— Her  labors  there,  while  in  feeble 
health — Mrs.  Livermore's  sketch  of  Miss  Safford — Her  personal  appearance  and  petite  figure — 
"  Ail  angel  at  Cairo" — "  That  little  gal  that  used  to  come  in  every  day  to  see  us — I  tell 
you  what  she's  an  angel  if  there  is  any" 307-361 

MRS.    LYDIA    G.    PARRISH. 

Previous  history — Early  consecration  to  the  work  of  beneficence  in  the  army — Visiting  George 
town  Seminary  Hospital — Seeks  aid  from  the  Sanitary  Commission — Visits  to  camps  around 
Washington — lleturn  to  Philadelphia  to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  her  friends  in  the  work  of 
the  Commission — Return  to  Seminary  Hospital — The  surly  soldier — He  melts  at  last — Visits 
in  other  hospitals — Broad  and  Cherry  Street  Hospital,  Philadelphia — Assists  in  organizing 
a  Ladies'  Aid  Society  at  Chester,  and  in  forming  a  corps  of  volunteer  nurses — At  Falmouth, 
Virginia,  in  January.  1863,  with  Mrs.  Harris — On  a  tour  of  inspection  in  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  with  her  husband — The  exchange  of  prisoners — Touching  scenes — The  Continental 
Fair — Mrs.  Parrish's  labors  in  connection  with  it — The  tour  of  inspection  at  the  Annapolis 
hospitals — Letters  to  the  Sanitary  Commission — Condition  of  the  returned  prisoners — Their 
hunger — The  St.  John's  College  Hospital — Admirable  arrangement — Camp  Parole  Hospital — 
The  Naval  Academy  Hospital — The  landing  of  the  prisoners — Their  frightful  sufferings — 
She  compiles  "The  Soldiers'  Friend"  of  which  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  copies  were 
circulated — Her  efforts  for  the  freedmen ...  362-372 


MRS.    ANNIE    WITTENMEYER. 

Early  efforts  for  the  soldiers — She  urges  the  organization  of  Aid  Societies,  and  these  become 
auxiliary  at  first  to  the  Keokuk  Aid  Society,  which  she  was  active  in  establishing — The 
Iowa  State  Sanitary  Commission — Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  becomes  its  agent — Her  active  efforts 
for  the  soldiers — She  disburses  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand  dollars  worth  of  goods 
and  supplies  in  about  two  years  and  a-half— She  aids  in  the  establishment  of  the  Iowa 
Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home — Her  plan  of  special  diet  kitchens — The  Christian  Commission 
appoint  her  their  agent  for  carrying  out  this  plan — Her  labors  in  their  establishment  in 
connection  with  large  hospitals — Special  order  of  the  War  Department — The  estimate  of 
her  services  by  the  Christian  Commission 373-378 

MELCENIA  ELLIOTT.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  Forman. 

Previous  pursuits — In  the  hospitals  in  Tennessee  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1S62 — A  remark 
ably  skilful  nurse — Services  at  Memphis — The  Iowa  soldier — She  scales  the  fence  to  watch 
over  him  and  minister  to  his  needs,  and  at  his  death  conveys  his  body  to  his  friends,  over 
coming  all  difficulties  to  do  so — In  the  Bentou  Barracks  Hospital — Volunteers  to  nurse  the 
patients  in  the  erysipelas  ward — Matron  of  the  Refugee  Home  at  St.  Louis — "The  poor 

white  trash" — Matron  of  Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home  at  Farmington,  Iowa 379-383 

5 


34  CONTEXTS. 

MARY  DWIGHT  PETTE8.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  FoTinan. 

PAGE 

A  native  of  Boston — Came  to  St.  Louis  in  1861,  and  entered  upon  hospital  work  in  January, 
1862 — Her  faithful  earnest  work — Labors  for  the  spiritual  as  well  as  physical  welfare  of  the 
soldiers,  reading  the  Scriptures  to  them,  singing  to  them,  etc. — Attachment  of  the  soldiers 
to  her — She  is  seized  with  typhoid  fever  contracted  in  her  care  for  her  patients,  and  dies 
after  five  weeks'  illness — Dr.  Eliot's  impressions  of  her  character , 384—388 

LOUISA  MAERTZ.     By  Rev.  J.  O.  Forman. 

Her  birth  and  parentage — Her  residence  in  Germany  and  Switzerland — Her  fondness  for  study — 
Her  extraordinary  sympathy  and  benevolence — She  commences  visiting  the  hospitals  in 
her  native  city,  Quincy,  Illinois,  in  the  autumn  of  1861 — She  takes  some  of  the  wounded 
home  to  her  father's  house  and  ministers  to  them  there — She  goes  to  St.  Louis— Is  commis 
sioned  as  a  nurse— Sent  to  Helena,  then  full  of  wounded  from  the  battles  in  Arkansas— Her 
severe  labors  here— Almost  the  only  woman  nurse  in  the  hospitals  there — "  God  bless  you, 
dear  lady" — The  Arkansas  Union  soldier — The  half-blind  widow — Miss  Maertz  at  Vicks- 
burg— At  New  Orleans S90-394 

MRS.    HARRIET   R.    COLFAX. 

Early  life— A  widow  and  fatherless— Her  first  labors  in  the  hospitals  in  St.  Louis— Her  sympa 
thies  never  blunted— The  sudden  death  of  a  soldier— Her  religious  labors  among  the  pa 
tients — Dr.  Paddock's  testimony — The  wounded  from  Fort  Donelson — On  the  hospital  boat — 
In  the  battle  at  Island  No.  Ten — Bringing  back  the  wounded — Mrs.  Colfax's  care  of  them — 
Trips  to  Pittsburg  Landing,  before  and  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh— Heavy  and  protracted 
labor  for  the  nurses— Return  to  St.  Louis— At  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital— At  Jeiferson  Bar 
racks — Her  associates — Obliged  to  retire  from  the  service  on  account  of  her  health  in 
1864 395-399 

CLARA    DAVIS. 

Miss  Davis  not  a  native  of  this  country — Her  services  at  the  Broad  and  Cherry  Street  Hospital, 
Philadelphia — One  of  the  Hospital  Transport  corps — The  steamer  "John  Brooks" — Mile 
Creek  Hospital— Mrs.  Husband's  account  of  her— At  Frederick  City,  Harper's  Ferry,  and 
Antiotam — Agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  at  Camp  Parole,  Annapolis,  Maryland — Is 
seized  with  typhoid  fever  here — When  partially  recovered,  she  resumes  her  labors,  but  ia 
again  attacked  and  compelled  to  withdraw  from  her  work — Her  other  labors  for  the  sol 
diers,  both  sick  and  well — Obtaining  furloughs— Sending  home  the  bodies  of  dead  soldiers — 
Providing  head-boards  for  the  soldiers'  graves 400-403 

MRS.    R.  H.   SPENCER. 

Her  borne  in  Oswego,  New  York — Teaching — An  anti-war  Democrat  is  convinced  of  his  duty 
to  become  a  soldier,  though  too  old  for  the  draft — Husband  and  wife  go  together — At  the 
Soldiers'  Rest  in  Washington— Her  first  work— Matron  of  the  hospital— At  Wind-Mill 
Point — Matron  in  the  First  Corps  Hospital — Foraging  for  the  sick  and  wounded — The 
march  toward  Gettysburg — A  heavily  laden  horse — Giving  up  her  last  blanket — Chivalric 
instincts  of  American  soldiers — Labors  during  the  battle  of  Gettysburg — Under  fire — Field 
Hospital  of  the  Eleventh  Corps— The  hospital  at  White  Church— Incessant  labors— Saving 
a  soldier's  life — "  Can  you  go  without  food  for  a  week  ?" — The  basin  of  broth — Mrs.  Spencer 


CONTENTS.  35 

PAGE 

appointed  agent  of  the  State  of  New  York  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in 
the  field — At  Brandy  Station — At  Rappahannock  Station  and  Belle  Plain  after  the  battle 
of  the  Wilderness — Virginia  mud — Working  alone — Heavy  rain  and  no  shelter — Working 
on  at  Belle  Plain — "  Nothing  to  wear" — Port  Royal — White  House — Feeding  the  wounded — 
Arrives  at  City  Point — The  hospitals  and  the  Government  kitchen — At  the  front — Carrying 
supplies  to  the  men  in  the  rifle  pits — Fired  at  by  a  sharpshooter — Shelled  by  the  enemy — 
The  great  explosion  at  City  Point — Her  narrow  escape — Remains  at  City  Point  till  the  hos 
pitals  are  broken  up — The  gifts  received  from  grateful  soldiers 404-415 


MRS.   HARRIET    FOOTE   HAWLEY.      By  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe. 

Mrs.  Hawley  accompanies  her  husband,  Colonel  Hawley,  to  South  Carolina — Teaching  the  freed- 
men — Visiting  the  hospitals  at  Beaufort,  Fernandina  and  St.  Augustine — After  Olustee — 
At  the  Armory  Square  Hospital,  Washington — The  surgical  operations  performed  in  the 
ward — "  Reaching  the  hospital  only  in  time  to  die" — At  Wilmington — Frightful  condition 
of  Union  prisoners — Typhus  fever  raging — The  dangers  greater  than  those  of  the  battle 
field — Four  thousand  sick — Mrs.  Hawley's  heroism,  and  incessant  labors — At  Richmond — 
Injured  by  the  upsetting  of  an  ambulance — Labors  among  the  freedmen — Colonel  Higgin- 
son's  speech 416-419 


ELLEN    E.    MITCHELL. 

Her  family — Motives  in  entering  on  the  work  of  ministering  to  the  soldiers — Receives  instruc 
tions  at  Bellevue  Hospital — Receives  a  nurse's  pay  and  gives  it  to  the  suffering  soldiers — 
At  Elmore  Hospital,  Georgetown — Gratitude  of  the  soldiers — Trials — St.  Elizabeth's  Hos 
pital,  Washington — A  dying  nurse — Her  own  serious  illness — Care  and  attention  of  Miss 
Jessie  Home — Death  of  her  mother — At  Point  Lookout — Discomforts  and  suffering — Ware 
House  Hospital,  Georgetown — Transfer  of  patients  and  nurse  to  Union  Hotel  Hospital — 
Her  duties  arduous  but  pleasant — Transfer  to  Knight  General  Hospital,  New  Haven — Re 
signs  and  accepts  a  situation  in  the  Treasury  Department,  but  longing  for  her  old  work 
returns  to  it — At  Fredericksburg  after  battle  of  the  Wilderness — At  Judiciary  Square  Hos 
pital,  Washington — Abundant  labor,  but  equally  abundant  happiness — Her  feelings  in  the 
review  of  her  work 420-41 


JESSIE   HOME. 

A  Scotch  maiden,  but  devotedly  attached  to  the  Union — Abandons  a  pleasant  and  lucrative 
pursuit  to  become  a  hospital  nurse — Her  earnestness  and  zeal — Her  incessant  labors — 
Sickness  and  death — Cared  for  by  Miss  Bergen  of  Brooklyn,  New  York 427,  428 


MISS  VANCE  AND  MISS  BLACKMAR.     By  Mrs.  M.  M.  Husband. 

Miss  Vance  a  missionary  teacher  before  the  war — Appointed  by  Miss  Dix  to  a  Baltimore  hos 
pital — At  Washington,  at  Alexandria,  and  at  Gettysburg — At  Fredericksburg  after  the 
battle  of  the  Wilderness— At  City  Point  in  the  Second  Corps  Hospital— Served  through  the 
whole  war  with  but  three  weeks'  furlough — Miss  Blackmar  from  Michigan — A  skilful  and 
efficient  nurse — The  almost  fatal  hemorrhage — The  boy  saved  by  her  skill — Carrying  a  hot 
brick  to  bed 429,430 


36  CONTENTS. 


H.  A.    DADA    AND  S.    E.   HALL. 

PAGE 

Missionary  teachers  before  the  war — Attending  lectures  to  prepare  for  nursing — After  the  first 
battle  of  Bull  Run — At  Alexandria — The  wounded  from  the  battle-field — Incessant  work — 
Ordered  to  Winchester,  Virginia— The  Court-House  Hospital— At  Strasburg— General 
Banks'  retreat — Remaining  among  the  enemy  to  care  for  the  wounded — At  Armory  Square 
Hospital — The  second  Bull  Run — Rapid  but  skilful  care  of  the  wdunded— Painful  cases — 
Harper's  Ferry — Twelfth  Army  Corps  Hospital— The  mother  in  search  of  bur  son — After 
Chancellorsville— The  battle  of  Gettysburg— Labors  in  the  First  and  Twelfth  Corps  Hos 
pitals — Sent  to  Murfreesboro',  Tennessee — Rudeness  of  the  Medical  Director — Discomfort  of 
their  situation — Discourtesy  of  the  Medical  Director  and  some  of  the  surgeons — "  We  have 
no  ladies  here — There  are  some  women  here,  who  are  cooks !" — Removal  to  Chattanooga — 
Are  courteously  and  kindly  received — Wounded  of  Sherman's  campaign — "You  are  the 
God-blessedest  woman  I  ever  saw" — Service  to  the  close  of  the  war  and  beyond — Lookout 
Mountain 431-439 


MRS.  SARAH   P.    EDSON. 

Early  life — Literary  pursuits — In  Columbia  College  Hospital — At  Camp  California — Quaker 
guns — Winchester,  Virginia — Prevalence  of  gangrene — Union  Hotel  Hospital — On  the 
Peninsula — In  hospital  of  Stunner's  Corps — Her  son  wounded — Transferred  to  Yorktown — 
Sufferings  of  the  men — At  White  House  and  the  front — Beef  soup  and  coffee  for  starving 
wounded  men — Is  permitted  to  go  to  Harrison's  Landing — Abundant  labor  and  care — Chap 
lain  Fuller — At  Hygeia  Hospital — At  Alexandria — Pope's  campaign — Attempts  to  go  to 
Antietam,  but  is  detained  by  sickness — Goes  to  Warrenton,  and  accompanies  the  army 
thence  to  Acquia  Creek — Return  to  Washington — Forms  a  society  to  establish  a  home  and 
training  school  for  nurses,  and  becomes  its  Secretary — Visits  hospitals — State  Relief  Societies 
approve  the  plan — Sanitary  Commission  do  not  approve  of  it  as  a  whole — Surgeon-General 
opposes — Visits  New  York  city — The  masons  become  interested — "  Army  Nurses'  Associa 
tion"  formed  in  New  York — Nurses  in  great  numbers  sent  on  after  the  battles  of  Wilder 
ness,  Spottsylvania,  etc. — The  experiment  a  success — Its  eventual  failure  through  the 
mismanagement  in  New  York — Mrs.  Edson  continues  her  labors  in  the  army  to  the  close 
of  the  war — Enthusiastic  reception  by  the  soldiers 440-44" 


MARIA  M.  C.  HALL. 

A.  native  of  Washington  city — Desire  to  serve  the  sick  and  wounded — Receives  a  sick  soldier 
into  her  father's  house — Too  young  to  answer  the  conditions  required  by  Miss  Dix — Appli 
cation  to  Mrs.  Fales — Attempts  to  dissuade  her — "Well  girls  here  they  are,  with  everything 
to  be  done  for  them" — The  Indiana  Hospital — Difficulties  and  discouragements — A  year  of 
hard  and  unsatisfactory  work — Hospital  Transport  Service — The  Daniel  Webster — At  Har 
rison's  Lauding  with  Mrs.  Fales — Condition  of  the  poor  fellows — Mrs.  Harris  calls  her  to 
Antietam — French's  Division  and  Smoketown  Hospitals — Abundant  work  but  performed 
•with  great  satisfaction — The  French  soldier's  letter — The  evening  or  family  prayers — Suc 
cessful  efforts  for  the  religious  improvement  of  the  men — Dr.  Vanderkieft — The  Naval 
Academy  Hospital  at  Annapolis— In  charge  of  Section  five — Succeeds  Mrs.  Tyler  as  Lady 
Superintendent  of  the  hospital — The  humble  condition  of  the  returned  prisoners  from 
Andersonville  and  elsewhere — Prevalence  of  typhus  fever — Death  of  her  assistants — Four 
fliousand  patients— Writes  for  "The  Crutch" — Her  joy  in  the  success  of  her  work 445-454 


CONTENTS.  37 

THE     HOSPITAL     CORPS     AT     THE     NAVAL     ACADEMY    HOSPITAL, 
ANNAPOLIS. 

PAGE 

The  cruelties  which  had  been  practiced  on  the  Union  men  in  rebel  prisons — Duties  of  the  nurses 
under  Miss  Hall — Names  and  homes  of  these  ladies — Death  of  Miss  Adeline  Walker — Miss 
Hall's  tribute  to  her  memory — Miss  Titcomb's  eulogy  on  her — Death  of  Miss  M.  A.  B. 
Young — Sketch  of  her  history — "  Let  me  be  buried  here  among  my  boys" — Miss  Rose  M. 
Billing — Her  faithfulness  as  a  nurse  in  the  Indiana  Hospital,  (Patent  Office,)  at  Falls 
Church,  and  at  Annapolis — She  like  the  others  falls  a  victim  to  the  typhus  generated  in 
Southern  prisons — Tribute  to  her  memory 4f)."-4f.O 

OTHER     LABORS    OF   SOME     OF     THE    MEMBERS     OF     THE    ANNAPOLIS 
HOSPITAL   CORPS. 

The  Maine  stay  of  the  Annapolis  Hospital — Miss  Titcomb — Miss  Newhall — Miss  Usher — Other 
ladies  from  Maine — The  Maine  camp  and  Hospital  Association — Mrs.  Eaton — Mrs.  Fogg — 
Mrs.  Miiyhew — Miss  Mary  A.  Dupee  and  her  labors — Miss  Abbie  J.  Howe — Her  labors  for 
the  spiritual  as  well  as  physical  good  of  the  men — Her  great  influence  over  them — Her  joy 
in  her  work 461-468 

MRS.  A.   H.    AND   MISS  S.   H.   GIBBONS. 

Mrs.  Gibbons  a  daughter  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper — Her  zeal  in  the  cause  of  reform — Work  of  herself 
and  daughter  in  the  Patent  Office  Hospital  in  1861— Visit  to  Falls  Church  and  its  hospital- 
Sad  condition  of  the  patients — ';  If  you  do  not  come  and  take  care  of  me  I  shall  die" — Re 
turn  to  this  hospital — Its  condition  greatly  improved — Winchester  and  the  Seminary  Hos 
pital — Severe  labors  here — Banks'  retreat — The  nurses  held  as  prisoners — Losses  of  Mrs. 
and  Miss  Gibbons  at  this  time — At  Point  Lookout — Exchanged  prisoners  from  Belle  Isle — 
A  scarcity  of  garments — Trowsers  a  luxury — Fifteen  months  of  hospital  service — Conflicts 
with  the  authorities  in  regard  to  the  freed  men— The  July  riots  in  New  York  in  1863— Mrs. 
Gibbons'  house  sacked  by  the  rioters — Destruction  of  everything  valuable — Return  to  Point 
Lookout — The  campaign  of  1864-5 — Mrs.  and  Miss  Gibbons  at  Fredericksburg — An  impro 
vised  hospital — Mrs.  Gibbons  takes  charge — The  gift  of  roses — The  roses  withered  and  dyed 
in  the  soldiers'  blood— Riding  with  the  wounded  in  box  cars— At  White  House— Labors  at 
Beverly  Hospital,  New  Jersey — Mrs.  Gibbons'  return  home — Her  daughter  remains  till  the 
close  of  the  war 467-475 

MRS.    E.   J.    RUSSELL. 

Government  nurses — Their  trials  and  hardships — Mrs.  Russell  a  teacher  before  the  war — Her 
patriotism — First  connected  with  the  Regimental  Hospital  of  Twentieth  New  York  Militia 
(National  Guards) — Assigned  to  Columbia  College  Hospital,  Washington — After  three  years' 
service  resigns  from  impaired  health,  but  recovering  enters  the  service  again  in  Baltimore — 
Nursing  rebels — Tier  attention  to  the  religious  condition  of  the  men — Four  years  of  ser 
vice — Returns  to  teaching  after  the  war 477-479 

MRS.  MARY   W.    LEE. 

Mrs.  Lee  of  foreign  birth,  but  American  in  feeling — Services  in  the  Volunteer  Refreshment 
Saloon — A  noble  institution — At  Harrison's  Landing,  with  Mrs.  Harris — Wretched  condition 
of  the  men — Improvement  under  the  efforts  of  the  ladies— The  Hospital  of  the  Epiphany 


38  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

at  Washington— At  Antietam  during  the  battle— The  two  water  tubs— The  enterprising 
sutler—"  Take  this  bread  and  give  it  to  that  woman"— The  Sedgwick  Hospital— Ordering 
u  guard — Hoffman's  Farm  Hospital — Smoketown  Hospital — Potomac  Creek — Chancellors- 
ville — Under  fire  from  the  batteries  on  Fredericksburg  Heights — Marching  with  the  army — 
Gettysburg — The  Second  Corps  Hospital — Camp  Letterman — The  Refreshment  Saloon 
again— Brandy  Station— A  stove  half  a  yard  square— The  battles  of  the  Wilderness— At 
Fredericksburg— A  diet  kitchen  without  furniture— Over  the  river  after  a  stove— Baking, 
boiling,  stewing,  and  frying  simultaneously — Keeping  the  old  stove  hot — At  City  Point — 
In  charge  of  a  hospital— The  last  days  of  the  Refreshment  Saloon -480-488 

CORNELIA  M.  TOMPKiNS.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  Forman. 

A  scion  of  an  eminent  family— At  Benton  Barracks  Hospital— At  Memphis— Return  to  St. 

Louis— At  Jefferson  Barracks 489,  490 

MRS.  ANNA  c.  MCMEENS.     By  Mrs.  E.  8.  Mend&nhall. 

A  native  of  Maryland— The  wife  of  a  surgeon  in  the  army— At  Camp  Dennison— One  of  the  first 
women  in  Ohio  to  minister  to  the  soldiers  in  a  military  hospital — At  Nashville  in  hospital — 
The  battle  of  Perryville — Death  of  Dr.  McMeens — At  home — Laboring  for  the  Sanitary 
Commission — In  the  hospitals  at  Washington — Missionary  work  among  the  sailors  on  Lake 
Erie 491,492 

MRS.  JERUSHA  R.  SMALL.     By  Mrs.  E.  8.  Mendenhall. 

A  native  of  Iowa— Accompanies  her  husband  to  the  war— Ministers  to  the  wounded  from  Bel- 
mont,  Donelson,  and  Shiloh— Her  husband  wounded  at  Shiloh— Under  fire  in  ministering 
to  the  wounded — Uses  all  her  spare  clothing  for  them — As  her  husband  recovers  her  own 
health  fails — The  galloping  consumption — The  female  secessionist — Going  home  to  die — 
Buried  with  the  flag  wrapped  around  her 493,  494 

MRS.  s.  A.  MARTHA  CANFiELD.     By  Mrs.  E.  S.  Mendenhall. 

Wife  of  Colonel  H.  Canfield— Her  huJband  killed  at  Shiloh— Burying  her  sorrows  in  her  heart- 
She  returns  to  labor  for  the  wounded  in  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps,  in  tho  hospitals  at 
Memphis— Labors  among  the  freedm en— Establishes  the  Colored  Orphan  Asylum  at 
Memphis 495 

MRS.   THOMAS   AND   MISS   MORRIS. 
Faithful  laborers  in  the  hospitals  at  Cincinnati  till  the  close  of  the  war 496 

MRS.  SHEPARD  WELLS.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  Forman. 

Driven  from  East  Tennessee  by  the  rebels— Becomes  a  member  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  So 
ciety  at  St.  Louis,  and  one  of  its  Secretaries — Superintends  the  special  diet  kitchen  at 
Benton  Barracks — An  enthusiastic  and  earnest  worker — Labor  for  the  refugees 497,  493 

MRS.  E.  c.  WITHERELL.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  Forman. 

A  lady  from  Louisville — Her  service  in  the  Fourth  Street  Hospital,  St.  Louis — "Shining 
Shore" — The  soldier  boy — On  the  "  Express"  hospital  steamer  nursing  the  wounded — A 
faithful  and  untiring  nurse — Is  attacked  with  fever,  and  dies  July,  1862 — Resolutions  of 
Western  Sanitary  Commission 49J-501 


CONTEXTS.  39 

PHEBE  ALLEN.     By  Rev.  J.  G.  For  man. 

PAGE 
A  teacher  in  Iowa — Volunteered  as  a  nurse  in  Benton  Barracks  hospital — Very  efficient — Died 

of  malarious  fever  in  1864,  at  the  hospital 502 


MRS.    EDWIN    GREBLE. 

Of  Quaker  stock— Intensely  patriotic— Her  eldest  son,  Lieutenant  John  Greble,  killed  at  Great 
Bethel  in  1861 — A  second  sou  served  through  the  war- A  son-in-law  a  prisoner  in  the  rebel 
prisons — Mrs.  Greble  a  most  assiduous  worker  in  the  hospitals  of  Philadelphia,  and  a  con 
stant  and  liberal  giver 503,  504 


MRS.   ISABELLA   FOGG. 

A  resident  of  Calais,  Maine— Her  only  son  volunteers,  and  she  devotes  herself  to  the  service  of 
ministering  to  the  wounded  and  sick — Goes  to  Annapolis  with  one  of  the  Maine  regiments — 
The  spotted  fever  in  the  Annapolis  Hospital — Mrs.  Fogg  and  Mrs.  Mayhew  volunteer  as 
nurses — The  Hospital  Transport  Service — At  the  front  after  Fair  Oaks — Savage's  Station — 
Over  land  to  Harrison's  Landing  with  tho  army — Under  fire — On  the  hospital  ship — Home — 
In  the  hospitals  around  Washington,  after  Antietam — The  Maine  Camp  Hospital  Associa 
tion—Mrs.  J.  S.  Eaton— After  Chancellorsville— In  the  field  hospitals  for  nearly  a  week, 
working  day  and  night,  and  under  fire — At  Gettysburg  the  day  after  the  battle — On  the 
Rapidan— At  Mine  Run— At  Belle  Plain  and  Fredericksburg  after  the  battle  of  the  Wilder 
ness — At  City  Point — Home  again — A  wounded  son — Severe  illness  of  Mrs.  Fogg — Reco 
very — Sent  by  Christian  Commission  to  Louisville  to  take  charge  of  a  special  diet  kitchen — 
Injured  by  a  fall— An  invalid  for  life— Happy  in  the  work  accomplished 505-510 

MRS.    E.    E.    GEORGE. 

Services  of  aged  women  in  the  war— Military  agency  of  Indiana— Mrs.  George's  appointment— 
Her  services  at  Memphis — At  Pulaski — At  Chattanooga — Following  Sherman  to  Atlanta — 
Matron  of  Fifteenth  Army  Corps  Hospital — At  Nashville — Starts  for  Savannah,  but  is  per 
suaded  by  Miss  Dix  to  go  to  Wilmington— Excessive  labors  there— Dies  of  typhus 511-513 

MRS.    CHARLOTTE    E.    MCKAY. 

A  native  of  Massachusetts — Enters  the  service  as  nurse  at  Frederick  city — Rebel  occupation  of 
the  city — Chancellorsville — The  assault  on  Marye's  Heights — Death  of  her  brother — Gettys 
burg — Services  in  Third  Division  Third  Corps  Hospital — At  Warrenton — Mine  Run — Brandy 
Station— Grant's  campaign— From  Belle  Plain  to  City  Point— The  Cavalry  Corps  Hospital- 
Testimonials  presented  to  her 514-516 

MRS.    FANNY    L.    RICKETTS. 

Of  English  parentage — Wife  of  Major-General  Ricketts — Resides  on  the  frontier  for  three  years — 
Her  husband  wounded  at  Bull  Run — Her  heroism  in  going  through  the  rebel  lines  to  be 
with  him — Dangers  and  privations  at  Richmond — Ministrations  to  Union  soldiers — He  is 
selected  as  a  hostage  for  the  privateersmen,  but  released  at  her  urgent  solicitation- 
Wounded  again  at  Antietam,  and  again  tenderly  nursed — Wounded  at  Middletown,  Vir 
ginia,  October,  1864,  and  for  four  mouths  in  great  danger — The  end  of  the  war 517-51« 


40  CONTENTS. 

MRS.   JOHN    8.   PHELPS. 

PAGE 

Early  history — Residence  in  the  Southwest — Rescues  General  Lyon's  body — Her  heroism  and 
benevolence  at  Pea  Ridge  and  elsewhere 520,  521 

MRS.   JANE    R.   MUNSELL. 

Maryland  women  in  the  war — Barbara  Frietchie — Effie  Titlow — Mrs.  Munsell's  labors  in  the 

hospitals  after  Antietam  and  Gettysburg — Her  death  from  over-exertion 522,  523 

PART  III.  LADIES  WHO  ORGANIZED  AID  SOCIETIES,  RECEIVED 
AND  FORWARDED  SUPPLIES  TO  THE  HOSPITALS,  DEVOTING 
THEIR  WHOLE  TIME  TO  THE  WORK,  ETC. 

WOMAN'S  CENTRAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  RELIEF.    By  Mrs.  Julia  B.  Curtis. 

Organization  and  officers  of  the  Association — It  becomes  a  branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission — Its  Registration  Committee  and  their  duties — The  Selection  and  Preparation  of 
Nurses  for  the  Army— The  Finance  and  Executive  Committee— The  unwillingness  of  the  Gov 
ernment  to  admit  any  deficiency — The  arrival  of  the  first  boxes  for  the  Association — The  sacri 
fices  made  by  the  women  in  the  country  towns  and  hamlets — The  Committee  of  Correspond 
ence — Twenty-five  thousand  letters — The  receiving  book,  the  day-book  and  the  ledger — The 
alphabet  repeated  seven  hundred  and  twenty-seven  times  on  the  boxes — Mrs.  Fellows  and  Mrs. 
Colby  solicitors  of  donations — The  call  for  nurses  on  board  the  Hospital  Transports— Mrs. 
W.  P.  Griffin  and  Mrs.  David  Lane  volunteer,  and  subsequently  other  members  of  the  Asso 
ciation — Mrs.  D'Oremieulx's  departure  for  Europe — Mr.  S.  W.  Bridgham's  faithful  labors — 
Creeping  into  the  Association  rooms  of  a  Sunday,  to  gather  up  and  forward  supplies 
needed  for  sudden  emergencies — The  First  Council  of  Representatives  from  the  principal 
Aid  Societies  at  Washington — Monthly  boxes — The  Federal  principle — Antietam  and  Fred- 
ericksburg  exhaust  the  supplies— Miss  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler's  able  letter  of  inquiry  to  the 
Secretaries  of  Auxiliaries— The  plan  of  "Associate  Managers" — Miss  Schuyler's  incessant 
labors  in  connection  with  this — The  set  of  boxes  devised  by  Miss  Schuyler  to  aid  the  work 
of  the  Committee  on  Correspondence — The  employment  of  Lecturers — The  Association 
publish  Mr.  George  T.  Strong's  pamphlet,  "  How  can  we  best  help  our  Camps  and  Hospi 
tals" — The  Hospital  Directory  opened — The  lack  of  supplies  of  clothing  and  edibles,  result 
ing  from  the  changed  condition  of  the  country — Activity  and  zeal  of  the  members  of  the 
Woman's  Central  Association — Miss  Ellen  Collins'  incessant  labors — Her  elaborate  tables  of 
supplies  and  their  disbursement — The  Association  offers  to  purchase  for  the  Auxiliaries  at 
wholesale  prices — Miss  Schuyler's  admirable  Plan  of  Organization  for  Country  Societies — 
Alert  Clubs  founded — Large  contributions  to  tlie  stations  at  Beaufort  and  Morris  Island — 
Miss  Collins  and  Mrs.  W.  P.  Griffin  in  charge  of  the  office  through  the  New  York  Riots  in 
July,  1863 — Mrs.  Griffin,  is  chairman  of  Special  Relief  Committee,  and  makes  personal 
visits  to  the  sick — The  Second  Council  at  Washington — Miss  Schuyler  and  Miss  Collins  dele 
gates—Miss  Schuyler's  efforts— The  whirlwind  of  Fairs— Aiding  the  feeble  auxiliaries  by 
donating  an  additional  sum  in  goods  equal  to  what  they  raised,  to  be  manufactured  by 
them — Five  thousand  dollars  a  month  thus  expended — A  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  Council — 
Help  to  Military  Hospitals  near  the  city,  and  the  Navy,  by  the  Association — Death  of  its 
President,  Dr.  Mott — The  news  of  peace — Miss  Collins'  Congratulatory  Letter — The  Asso 
ciation  continues  its  work  to  July  7 — Two  hundred  and  ninety-one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  seventy-five  shirts  distributed — Purchases  made  for  Auxiliaries,  seventy-nine  thou- 


CONTEXTS.  41 

PAGE 

sand  three  hundred  and  ninety  dollars  and  fifty-seven  cents— Other  expenditures  of  money 
for  the  purposes  of  the  Association,  sixty-one  thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty-six  dollars 
and  fifty-seven  cents— The  zeal  of  the  Associated  Managers— The  Brooklyn  Relief 
Association — Miss  Schuyler's  labors  as  a  writer — Her  reports — Articles  in  the  Sanitary  Bul 
letin,  "The  Soldiers'  Friend,"  "Nelly's  Hospital,"  &c.  &c. — The  patient  and  continuous 
labors  of  the  Committees  on  Correspondence  and  on  Supplies — Territory  occupied  by  the 
Woman's  Central  Association — Resolutions  at  the  Final  Meeting 527-^09 

SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY  OF  NORTHERN  OHIO. 

Its  organization— At  first  a  Local  Society— No  Written  Constitution  or  By-laws— Becomes  a 
branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  in  October,  1861 — Its  territory  small  and 
not  remarkable  for  wealth — Five  hundred  and  twenty  auxiliaries — Its  disbursement  of  one 
million  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  dollars  in  money  and  supplies— The  North 
ern  Ohio  Sanitary  Fair— The  supplies  mostly  forwarded  to  the  Western  Depot  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission  at  Louisville — "The  Soldiers'  Home"  built  under  the  direction 
of  the  Ladies  who  managed  the  affairs  of  the  Society,  and  supplied  and  conducted  under 
their  Supervision— The  Hospital  Directory,  Employment  Agency,  War  Claim  Agency— The 
entire  time  of  the  Officers  of  the  Society  for  five  and  a  half  years  voluntarily  and  freely 
given  to  its  work  from  eight  in  the  morning  till  six  or  later  in  the  evening — The  President, 
Mrs.  B.  Rouse,  and  her  labors  in  organizing  Aid  Societies  and  attending  to  the  home  work— 
The  labors  of  the  Secretary  and  Treasurer — Editorial  work — The  Society's  printing  press — 
Setting  up  and  printing  Bulletins — The  Sanitary  Fair  originated  and  carried  on  by  the  Aid 
Society — The  Ohio  State  Soldiers'  Home  aided  by  them — Sketch  of  Mrs.  Rouse— Sketch  of 
Miss  Mary  Clark  Brayton,  Secretary  of  the  Society — Sketch  of  Miss  Ellen  F.  Terry,  Trea 
surer  of  the  Society— Miss  Brayton's  "  On  a  Hospital  Train,"  "  Riding  on  a  Rail"— Visit  to 
the  Army— The  first  sight  of  a  hospital  train— The  wounded  soldiers  on  board— "Trickling 
a  little  sympathy  on  the  Wounded"— "  The  Hospital  Train  a  jolly  thing"— The  dying 
soldier — Arrangement  of  the  Hospital  Train — The  arduous  duties  of  the  Surgeon 540-552 


Its  organization  and  territory — One  million  five  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  dollars  collected 
in  money  and  supplies  by  this  Association — Its  Sanitary  Fair  and  its  results — The  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  Miss  Abby  W.  May — Her  retiring  and  modest  disposition— Her 
rare  executive  powers — Sketch  of  Miss  May — Her  early  zeal  in  the  Anti-slavery  move 
ment — Her  remarkable  practical  talent,  and  admirable  management  of  affairs — Her  elo 
quent  appeals  to  the  auxiliaries — Her  entire  self-abnegation — Extract  from  one  of  her 
letters — Extract  from  her  Final  Report — The  Boston  Sewing  Circle  and  its  officers — The 
Ladies'  Industrial  Aid  Association  of  Boston — Nearly  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thou 
sand  garments  for  the  soldiers  made  by  the  employes  of  the  Association,  most  of  whom 
were  from  soldiers'  families — Additional  wages  beyond  the  contract  prices  paid  to  the  work 
women,  to  the  amount  of  over  twenty  thousand  dollars — The  lessons  learned  by  the  ladies 
engaged  in  this  work 553-559 

THE    NORTHWESTERN    SANITARY    COMMISSION. 

The  origin  of  the  Commission — Its  early  labors — Mrs.  Porter's  connection  with  it — Her  determi 
nation  to  go  to  the  army — The  appointment  of  Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore  as  Managers — 
The  extent  and  variety  of  their  labors — The  two  Sanitary  Fairs — Estimate  of  the  amount 
raised  by  the  Commission 560,  561 


42  CONTEXTS. 

MRS.    A.    H.    HOGE. 

PAGE 

Her  birth  and  early  education — Her  marriage — Her  family — She  identifies  herself  from  the  be 
ginning  with  the  National  cause — Her  first  visit  to  the  hospitals  of  Cairo,  Mound  City  and 
St.  Louis — The  Mound  City  Hospital — The  wounded  boy — Turned  over  for  the  first  time — 
"  They  had  to  take  the  Fort" — Rebel  cruelties  at  Donelson — The  poor  French  boy — The 
mother  who  had  lost  seven  sons  in  the  Army — "  He  had  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  to 
die"— Mrs.  Hoge  at  the  Woman's  Council  at  Washington  in  1862— Labors  of  Mrs.  Hoge  and 
Mrs.  Livermore — Correspondence  —  Circulars — Addresses  —  Mrs.  Hoge's  eloquence  and 
pathos — The  ample  contributions  elicited  by  her  appeals — Visit  to  the  Camp  of  General 
Grant  at  Young's  Point,  in  the  winter  of  1862-3 — Return  with  a  cargo  of  wounded — Second 
visit  to  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg — Prevalence  of  scurvy — The  onion  and  potato  circulars — 
Third  visit  to  Vicksburg  in  June,  1863— Incidents  of  this  visit— The  rifle-pits- 
Singing  Hymns  under  fire — 'Did  you  drop  from  heaven  into  these  rifle-pits?" — Mrs.  Hoge's 
talk  to  the  men — "  Promise  me  you'll  visit  my  regiment  to-morrow" — The  flag  of  the  Board 
of  Trade  Regiment— "  How  about  the  blood?"— "  Sing,  Rally  round  the  Flag  Boys"— The 
death  of  R— "Take  her  picture  from  under  my  pillow"— Mrs.  Hoge  at  Washington  again— 
Her  views  of  the  value  of  the  Press  in  benevolent  operations— In  the  Sanitary  Fairs  at 
Chicago^Her  address  at  Brooklyn,  in  March,  1865— Gifts  presented  her  as  a  testimony  to 
the  value  of  her  labors 562-576 

MRS.    MARY    A.    LIVERMORE. 

Mrs.  Livermore's  childhood  and  education — She  becomes  a  teacher — Her  marriage — She  is  asso 
ciated  with  her  husband  as  Editor  of  TJie  New  Covenant — Her  scholarship  and  ability  as  a 
writer  and  speaker — The  vigor  and  eloquence  of  her  appeals — "  Women  and  the  War" — The 
beginnings  of  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission— The  appointment  of  Mrs.  Livermore 
and  Mrs.  Hoge  as  its  managers — The  contributions  of  Mrs.  Livermore  to  the  press,  on  sub 
jects  connected  with  her  work — "The  backward  movement  of  General  McClellan" — The 
Hutchinsons  prohibited  from  singing  Whittier's  Song  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac — Mrs. 
Livermore's  visit  to  Washington — Her  description  of  "Camp  Misery" — She  makes  a  tour 
to  the  Military  Posts  on  the  Mississippi — The  female  nurses — The  scurvy  in  the  Camp — 
The  Northwestern  Sanitary  Fair — Mrs.  Livermore's  address  to  the  Women  of  the  North 
west—Her  tact  in  selecting  the  right  persons  to  carry  out  her  plans  at  the  Fair— Her  ex  ten 
sive  journeyings— Her  visit  to  Washington  in  the  Spring  of  1865— Her  invitation  to  the 
President  to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  the  Fair— Her  description  of  Mr.  Lincoln— His 
death  and  the  funeral  solemnities  with  which  his  remains  were  received  at  Chicago— The 
final  fair — Mrs.  Livermore's  testimonials  of  regard  and  appreciation  from  friends  and,  es 
pecially  from  the  soldiers 577-589 

GENERAL    AID   SOCIETY    FOR   THE   ARMY,  BUFFALO. 

Organization  of  the  Society— Its  first  President,  Mrs.  Follett— Its  second  President,  Mrs.  Horatio 
Seymour— Her  efficient  Aids,  Miss  Babcock  and  Miss  Bird— The  friendly  rivalry  with  the 
Cleveland  Society— Mrs.  Seymour's  rare  ability  and  system— Her  encomiums  on  the  labors 
of  the  patriot  workers  in  country  homes — The  workers  in  the  cities  equally  faithful  and 
praiseworthy 590-592 

MICHIGAN  SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY. 

The  Patriotic  women  of  Michigan— Annie  Etheridge,  Mrs.  Russell  and  others—"  The  Soldiers' 
Relief  Committee"  and  "  The  Soldiers'  Aid  Society"  of  Detroit— Their  Consolidation— The 


CONTENTS.  43 

%  PAGE 

officers  of  the  New  Society — Miss  Valeria  Campbell  the  soul  of  the  organization — Her  mul 
tifarious  labors— The  Military  Hospitals  in  Detroit — The  "  Soldiers'  Home"  in  Detroit — 
Michigan  in  the  two  Chicago  Fairs— Amount  of  money  and  supplies  raised  by  the  Michigan 
Branch 593-595 


COMMISSION. 

The  loyal  women  of  Philadelphia — Their  numerous  organizations  for  the  relief  of  the  Soldier — 
The  organization  of  the  Women's  Pennsylvania  Branch — Its  officers — Sketch  of  Mrs. 
Grier — Her  parentage — Her  residence  in  Wilmington,  N.  C. — Persecution  for  loyalty — 
Escape — She  enters  immediately  upon  Hospital  Work — Her  appointment  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  Women's  Branch — Her  remarkable  tact  and  skill — Her  extraordinary  executive 
talent — Mrs.  Clara  J.  Moore — Sketch  of  her  labors — Other  ladies  of  the  Association — Testi 
monials  to  Mrs.  Grier's  ability  and  admirable  management  from  officers  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission  and  others — The  final  report  of  this  Branch — The  condition  of  the  state  and 
country  at  its  inception — The  Associate  Managers — The  work  accomplished — Peace  at  last— 
The  details  of  Expenses  of  the  Supply  Department — The  work  of  the  Relief  Committee — 
Eight  hundred  and  thirty  women  employed — Widows  of  Soldiers  aided — Total  expenditures 
of  Relief  Committee 596-606 

THE  WISCONSIN  SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY.     By  Rev.  J.   G.  Forinaii. 

The  Mihvaukie  Ladies  Soldiers'  Aid  Society— Labors  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  Mrs.  Delafield  and  others— 
Enlargement  and  re-organization  as  the  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Aid  Society — Mrs.  Henrietta  L. 
Colt,  chosen  Corresponding  Secretary — Her  visits  to  the  front,  and  her  subsequent  labors 
among  the  Aid  Societies  of  the  State— Efficiency  of  the  Society— The  Wisconsin  Soldiers' 
Home — Its  extent  and  what  it  accomplished — It  forms  the  Nucleus  of  one  of  the  National 
Soldiers'  Homes — Sketch  of  Mrs.  Colt — Death  of  her  husband — Her  deep  and  overwhelm 
ing  grief — She  enters  upon  the  Sanitary  Work,  to  relieve  herself  from  the  crushing  weight 
of  her  great  sorrow — Her  labors  on  a  Hospital  Steamer — Her  frequent  subsequent  visits  to 
the  front — Her  own  account  of  these  visits — "  The  beardless  boys,  all  heroes" — Sketch  of 
Mrs.  Governor  Salomon — Her  labors  in  behalf  of  the  German  and  other  soldiers  of  Wis 
consin 607-614 

PITTSBURG    BRANCH    UNITED    STATES    SANITARY   COMMISSION. 

The  Pittsburg  Sanitary  Committee  and  Pittsburg  Subsistence  Committee— Organization  of  the 
Branch — Its  Corresponding  Secretary,  Miss  Rachael  W.  McFadden — Her  executive  ability 
zeal  and  patriotism — Her  colleagues  in  her  labors — The  Pittsburg  Sanitary  Fair — Its  re 
markable  success— Miss  Murdock's  labors  at  Nashville 615,616 

MRS.    ELIZABETH    S.    MENDENHALL. 

Mrs.  MendenhalPs  childhood  and  youth  passed  in  Richmond,  Va.— Her  relatives  Members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends— Her  early  Hospital  labors— President  of  the  Women's  Soldiers'  Aid 
Society  of  Cincinnati— Her  appeal  to  the  citizens  of  Cincinnati  to  organize  a  Sanitary  Fair— 
Her  efforts  to  make  the  Fair  a  success — The  magnificent  result — Subsequent  labors  in  the 
Sanitary  Cause— Fair  for  Soldiers' Families  in  December,  1864— Labors  for  the  Freedmen 
and  Refugees— In  behalf  of  fallen  women 617-620 


44  CONTEXTS. 

DEPARTMENT    OF    THE   SOUTH. 

PAGE 

Dr.  AI.  M.  Marsh  appointed  Medical  Inspector  of  Department  of  the  South — Early  in  1863  he 
proceeded  thither  with  his  wife — Mrs.  Marsh  finds  abundant  work  in  the  receipt  and  distri 
bution  of  Sanitary  Stores,  in  the  visiting  of  Hospitals— Spirit  of  the  wounded  men— The 
exchange  of  prisoners — Sufferings  of  our  men  in  Rebel  prisons — Their  self-sacrificing 
spirit — Supplies  sent  to  the  prisoners,  and  letters  received  from  them — The  sudden  suspen 
sion  of  this  benevolent  work  by  order  from  General  Halleck — The  sick  from  Sherman's 
Army — Dr.  Marsh  ordered  to  Newbern,  N.  C.,  but  detained  by  sickness — Return  to  New 
York— The  "  Lincoln  Home"— Dr.  and  Mrs.  Marsh's  labors  there— Close  of  the  Lincoln 
Home 621-629 

ST.  LOUIS  LADIES'  UNION  AID  SOCIETY. 

Organization  of  the  Society — Its  officers — Was  the  principal  Auxiliary  of  Western  Sanitary  Com 
mission — Visits  of  its  members  to  the  fourteen  hospitals  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Louis — The 
hospital  basket  and  its  contents — The  Society's  delegates  on  the  battle-fields — Employs  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  soldiers  in  bandage  rolling,  and  subsequently  on  contracts  for  hos 
pital  and  other  clothing  for  soldiers — Its  committees  cutting,  fitting  and  examining  the 
work — Undertakes  the  special  diet  kitchen  of  the  Benton  Barracks  Hospital — Establishes  a 
branch  at  Nashville — Special  Diet  Kitchen  there — Its  work  for  the  Freedmen  and  Refu 
gees — Sketches  of  its  leading  officers  and  managers — Mrs.  Anna  L.  Clapp,  a  native  of  Wash 
ington  County,  N.  Y — Resides  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y..  and  subsequently  in  St.  Louis — Elected 
President  of  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  retains  her  position 
till  its  close — Her  arduous  labors  and  great  tact  and  skill — She  organizes  a  Refugee  Home 
and  House  of  Industry — Aids  the  Freedmen,  and  assists  in  the  proper  regulation  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home — Miss  H.  A.  Adams,  (now  Mrs.  Morris  Collins) — Born  and  educated  in  New 
Hampshire— At  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  a  teacher  in  St.  Louis— Devoted  herself  to  the 
Sanitary  work  throughout  the  war — Was  secretary  of  the  society  till  the  close  of  1864,  and 
a  part  of  the  time  at  Nashville,  where  she  established  a  special  diet  kitchen — Death  of  her 
brother  in  the  army — Her  influence  in  procuring  the  admission  of  female  nurses  in  the 
Nashville  hospitals — Mrs.  C.  R.  Springer,  a  native  of  Maine,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Society,  and  the  superintendent  of  its  employment  department,  for  furnishing  work  to 
soldiers'  families — Her  unremitting  and  faithful  labors — Mrs.  Mary  E.  Palmer — A  native  of 
New  Jersey— An  earnest  worker,  visiting  and  aiding  soldiers'  families  and  dispensing  the 
charities  of  the  Society  among  them  and  the  destitute  families  of  refugees— Her  labors  were 
greater  than  her  strength — Her  death  occasioned  by  a  decline,  the  result  of  over  exertion  in 
her  philanthropic  work 630-642 

LADIES'  AID  SOCIETY  OF  PHILADELPHIA,  &c. 

Organization  of  the  Society — Its  officers — Mrs.  Joel  Jones,  Mrs.  John  Harris,  Mrs.  Stephen 
Caldwell — Mrs.  Harris  mostly  engaged  at  the  front — The  Society  organized  with  a  view  to 
the  spiritual  as  well  as  physical  benefit  of  the  soldiers— Its  great  efficiency  with  moderate 
means— The  ladies  who  distributed  its  supplies  at  the  front— Extract  from  one  of  its  re 
ports—Its  labors  among  the  Refugees— The  self-sacrifice  of  one  of  its  members— Its  expen 
ditures.  THE  PENN  RELIEF  ASSOCIATION — An  organization  originating  with  the  Friends,  but 
afterward  embracing  all  denominations — Its  officers — Its  efficiency — Amount  of  supplies 
distributed  by  it  through  well-known  ladies.  THE  SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY— Another  of  the 
efficient  Pennsylvania  Organizations  for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers— Its  President,  Mrs.  Mary 


CONTEXTS.  4,r) 

PAOB 

A.  Brady— Her  labors  in  the  Satterlee  Hospital— At  "Camp  Misery"— At  the  front— After 
Gettysburg,  and  at  Mine  Itun — Her  health  injured  by  her  exposure  and  excessive  labors — 
She  dies  of  heart-disease  in  May,  1864 643-649 


WOMEN'S  RELIEF  ASSOCIATION  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  LONG    ISLAND, 

Brooklyn  early  in  the  war — Numerous  channels  for  distribution  of  the  Supplies  contributed — 
Importance  of  a  Single  Comprehensive  Organization — The  Relief  Association  formed — Mr. 
Stranahan  chosen  President — Sketch  of  Mrs.  Stranahan — Her  social  position — First  directress 
of  the  Graham  Institute — Her  rare  tact  and  efficiency  as  a  presiding  officer  and  in  the  dis 
patch  of  business — The  Long  Island  Sanitary  Fair — Her  excessive  labors  there,  and  the 
perfect  harmony  and  good  feeling  which  prevailed — Rev.  Dr.  Spear's  statement  of  her 
worth — The  resolutionsof  the  Relief  Association — Rev.  Dr.  Bellows'  Testimony — Her  death- 
Rev.  Dr.  Farley's  letter  concerning  her— Rev.  Dr.  Budington's  tribute  to  her  memory..  650-658 


MRS.    ELIZABETH    M.    STREETER. 

Loyal  Southern  Women — Mrs.  Streeter's  activity  in  promoting  associations  of  loyal  women  for 
the  relief  of  the  soldiers — Her  New  England  parentage  and  education — The  Ladies'  Union 
Relief  Association  of  Baltimore — Mrs.  Streeter  at  Antietam — As  a  Hospital  Visitor — The 
Eutaw  Street  Hospital — The  Union  Refugees  in  Baltimore — Mrs.  Streeter  organizes  the 
Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Soldiers'  families — Testimony  of  the  Maryland 
Committee  of  the  Christian  Commission  to  the  value  of  her  labors — Death  of  her  husband — 
Her  return  to  Massachusetts 659-664 


MRS.    CURTIS    T.  FENN. 

The  loyal  record  of  the  men  and  women  of  Berkshire  County — Mrs.  Fenn's  history  and  position 
before  the  war — Her  skill  and  tenderness  in  the  care  of  the  sick — Her  readiness  to  enter 
upon  the  work  of  relief — She  becomes  the  embodiment  of  a  Relief  Association — Liberal 
contributions  made  and  much  work  performed  by  others  but  no  organization — Mrs.  Fenn's 
incessant  and  extraordinary  labors  for  the  soldiers — Her  packing  and  shipping  of  the  sup 
plies  to  the  hospitals  in  and  about  New  York  and  to  more  distant  cities — Refreshments  for 
Soldiers  who  passed  through  Pittsfield — Her  personal  distribution  of  supplies  at  the  soldiers' 
Thanksgiving  dinner  at  Bedloe's  Island  in  1862,  and  at  David's  Island  in  1864 — "The  gen 
tleman  from  Africa  and  his  vote" — Her  efforts  for  the  disabled  soldiers  and  their  families — 
The  soldiers'  monument 665  -675 


MRS.    JAMES    HARLAN. 

Women  in  high  stations  devoting  themselves  to  the  relief  of  the  Soldiers — Instances — Mrs. 
Harlan's  early  interest  in  the  soldier — At  Shiloh — Cutting  red-tape — Wounded  soldiers  re 
moved  northward  after  the  battle — Death  of  her  daughter — Her  labors  for  the  religious 
benefit  of  the  soldier— Her  health  impaired  by  her  labors 676-678 

NEW    ENGLAND    SOLDIERS'    RELIEF    ASSOCIATION. 

History  of  the  organization — Its  Matron,  Mrs.  E.  A.  Russell — The  Women's  Auxiliary  Commit 
tee—The  Night  Watchers'  Association— The  Hospital  Choir— The  SOLDIERS'  DEPOT  in  How 
ard  Street,  N.  Y— The  Ladies'  Association  connected  with  it 679,686 


46  CONTENTS. 

PAKT  IV.    LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  FOE  SEKVICES  AMONG  THE 
FEEEDMEN  AND  EEFUGEES. 

MRS.    FRANCES    DANA    GAGE. 

PAGE 

Childhood  and  youth  of  Mrs.  Gage — Anti-slavery  views  inculcated  by  her  parents  and  grand 
parents — Her  marriage — Her  husband  an  earnest  reformer — Her  connection  with  the  press — 
Ostracism  on  account  of  her  opposition  to  slavery — Propositions  made  to  her  husband  to 
swerve  from  principle  and  thereby  attain  office — "Dare  to  stand  alone" — Removal  to  St. 
Louis — A  contributor  to  the  Missouri  Republican — The  noble  stand  of  Colonel  Chambers — 
His  death — She  contributes  to  the  Missouri  Democrat,  but  is  finally  excluded  from  its 
columns — Personal  peril — Her  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  Kansas — Editor  of  an  Agricultural 
paper  in  Columbus,  Ohio — Her  labors  among  the  freedmen  in  the  department  of  the  South 
for  thirteen  months,  (1862-3) — Helps  the  soldiers  also — Her  four  sons  in  the  army — Return 
Northward  in  the  Autumn  of  1863 — Becomes  a  lecturer — Advocating  the  Emancipation  Act 
and  the  Constitutional  Amendment,  prohibiting  slavery — Labors  for  the  Freedmen  and 
Refugees  in  1864 — Is  injured  by  the  overturning  of  a  carriage  at  Galesburg,Ill.,in  Septem 
ber,  1864 — Lecturing  again  on  her  partial  recovery — Summary  of  her  character 683-690 

MRS,    LUCY    GAYLORD    POMEROY. 

Birth  and  early  education— Half-sister  of  the  poets  Lewis  and  Willis  Gaylord  Clark— Educates 
herself  for  a  Missionary — A  Sunday-school  teacher — Sorrow — Is  married  to  S.  C.  Pomeroy 
(afterward  United  States  Senator  from  Kansas) — Residence  in  Southampton,  Mass. — 111 
health — Removal  to  Kansas — The  Kansas  Struggle  and  Border  Ruffian  War — Mrs.  Pome 
roy  a  firm  friend  to  the  escaping  slaves — The  famine  year  of  1860 — Her  house  an  office  of 
distribution  for  supplies  to  the  starving — Accompanies  her  husband  to  Washington  in  1861 — 
Her  labors  and  contributions  for  the  soldiers — In  Washington  and  at  Atchison,  Kansas — Re 
turn  to  Washington — Founding  an  asylum  for  colored  orphans  and  destitute  aged  colored 
women — The  building  obtained  and  furnished — Her  failing  health — She  comes  north,  but 
dies  on  the  passage 691-696 

MARIA    R.    MANN. 

Miss  Mann  a  near  relative  of  the  late  Hon.  Horace  Mann — Her  career  as  a  teacher — Her 
loyalty — Comes  to  St.  Louis — Becomes  a  nurse  in  the  Fifth  St.  Hospital — Condition  of  the 
Freedmen  at  St.  Helena,  Ark.— The  Western  Sanitary  Commission  becomes  interested  in  en 
deavoring  to  help  them — They  propose  to  Miss  Mann  to  go  thither  and  establish  a  hospital, 
distribute  clothing  and  supplies  to  them,  and  instruct  them  as  far  as  possible — She  con 
sents—Perilous  voyage— Her  great  and  beneficent  labors  at  Helena— Extraordinary  improve 
ment  in  the  condition  of  the  freedmen— She  remains  till  August,  1863— Her  heroism- 
Gratitude  of  the  freedmen — "  You's  light  as  a  fedder,  anyhow" — Return  to  St.  Louis — Be 
comes  the  teacher  and  manager  of  a  colored  asylum  at  Washington,  D.  C. — Her  school  for 
colored  children  at  Georgetown — Its  superior  character — It  is,  in  intention,  a  normal  school — 
Miss  Mann's  sacrifices  in  continuing  in  that  position 697-703 

SARAH  J.    HAGAR. 

A  native  of  Illinois— Serves  in  the  St.  Louis  Hospitals  till  August,  1863— Is  sent  to  Vicksburg 
in  the  autumn  of  1863,  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  as  teacher  for  the  Freedmeu's 


CONTEXTS.  47 

PAGE 

children — Her  great  and  successful  labors — Is  attacked  in  April,  1864,  with  malarial  fever, 
and  dies  May  3 — Tribute  to  her  character  and  work,  from  Mr.  Marsh,  superintendent  Of 
Freednien  at  Vicksburg 704-706 

MRS.    JOSEPHINE    E.   GRIFFIN. 

Her  noble  efforts — Her  position  at  the  commencement  of  the  war — Her  interest  in  the  condi 
tion  of  the  Freednien — Her  attempts  to  overcome  their  faults — Her  success — Organization 
of  schools — Finding  employment  for  them — Influx  of  Freednien  into  the  District  of  Colum 
bia — Their  helpless  condition — Mrs.  Griffin  attempts  to  find  situations  for  them  at  the 
North — Extensive  correspondence — Her  expeditions  with  companies  of  them  to  the  North 
ern  cities — Necessities  of  the  freedmen  remaining  in  the  District  in  the  Autumn  of  1865 — 
Mrs.  Griffin's  circular — The  denial  of  its  truth  by  the  Freedmen's  Bureau — Their  subsequent 
retraction — The  Congressional  appropriation — Should  have  been  put  in  Mrs.  Griffin's  hands — 
She  continues  her  labors 707-709 

MRS.    M.    M.    HALLOWELL. 

Condition  of  the  loyal  whites  of  the  mountainous  district  of  the  South — Their  sufferings  and 
persecutions — Cruelty  of  the  Rebels — Contributions  for  their  aid  in  the  north — Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia— Mrs.  Hallowell's  efforts— She  and  her  associates  visit  Nashville.  Knox- 
ville,  Huntsville  and  Chattanooga  and  distribute  supplies  to  the  families  of  refugees — Peril 
of  their  journey — Repeated  visits  of  Mrs.  Hallowell — The  Homo  for  Refugees,  near  Nash 
ville—Gratitude  of  the  Refugees  for  this  aid— Colonel  Taylor's  letter 710-712 

OTHER    FRIENDS    OF    THE    FREEDMEN   AND    REFUGEES. 

Mrs.  Harris'  labors — Miss  Tyson  and  Mrs.  Beck — Miss  Jane  Stuart  Woolsey — Mrs.  Governor 
Hawley— Miss  Gilson— Mrs.  Lucy  S.  Starr— Mrs.  Clinton  B.  Fisk— Mrs.  H.  F.  Hoes  and  Miss 
Alice  F.  Royce— Mrs.  John  S.  Phelps— Mrs.  Mary  A.  Whitakec— Fort  Leavenworth— Mrs. 
Nettie  C.  Constant — Miss  G.  D.  Chapman — Miss  Sarah  E.  M.  Lovejoy,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Owen  Lovejoy— Miss  Mary  E.  Sheffield— Her  labors  at  Vicksburg— Her  death— Helena— Mrs. 
Sarah  Coombs — Nashville — Mrs.  Mary  R.  Fogg — St.  Louis  Refugee  and  Freedmen's  Home — 
Mrs.  II.  M.  Weed — The  supervision  of  this  Home  by  Mrs.  Alfred  Clapp,  Mrs.  Joseph  Craw- 
shaw,  Mrs.  Lucien  Eaton  and  Mrs.  N.  Stevens 713-716 


PAET  V.  LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  FOE  SERVICES  IN  SOLDIERS' 
HOMES,  VOLUNTEER  REFRESHMENT  SALOONS,  ON  GOVERN 
MENT  HOSPITAL  TRANSPORTS  ETC. 

MRS.   O.    E.   HOSMER. 

Mrs.  Hosmer's  residence  at  Chicago — Her  two  sons  enter  the  army — She  determines  to  go  to  the 
hospitals — Her  first  experiences  in  the  hospitals  at  Tipton  and  Smithtown — The  lack  of  sup 
plies — Mrs.  Hosmer  procures  them  from  the  Sanitary  Commission  at  St.  Louis — Return  to 
Chicago — Organization  of  the  "  Ladies'  War  Committee" — Mrs.  Hosmer  its  Secretary — Effi 
ciency  of  the  organization — The  Board  of  Trade  Regiments — Mrs.  Hosmer  and  Mrs.  Smith 
Tinkham  go  to  Murfreesboro'  with  supplies  after  the  battle  of  Stone  River— Their  report  on 
their  return— Touching  incident— The  wounded  soldier— Return  to  Chicago— Establishment 
of  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Chicago— Mrs.  Hosmer  its  first  Vice  President— Her  zeal  for  its 
interests  and  devotion  to  the  Soldiers  there— To  the  battle-field  after  Chickamauga— Taken 


48  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

prisoner  but  recaptured — Supplies  lost — xletnrn  home — Her  labors  at  the  Soldiers'  Home 
and  Soldiers'  Rest  for  the  next  fifteen  months — The  Northwestern  Sanitary  and  Soldiers' 
Home  Fair — Mrs.  Hosmer  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Executive  Committee — She  visits 
the  hospitals  from  Cairo  to  New  Orleans — Success  of  her  Mission — The  emaciated  prisoners 
from  Andersonville  and  Catawba  at  Vicksburg — Mrs.  Hosmer  ministers  to  them — The  loss 
of  the  Sultana — Return  and  further  labors  at  the  Soldiers' Rest — Removal  to  New  York.  719-724 


MISS    HATTIE    WISWALL. 

Enters  the  service  as  Hospital  Nurse  in  1863 — At  Benton  Barracks  Hospital — A  Model  nurse — 
Her  cheerfulness — Removal  to  Nashville,  Tennessee — She  is  sent  thence  to  Vicksburg,  first 
as  an  assistant  and  afterwards  as  principal  matron  at  the  Soldiers'  Home — One  hundred  and 
fifteen  thousand  soldiers  accommodated  there  during  her  stay — The  number  of  soldiers  daily 
received  ranging  from  two  hundred  to  six  hundred — Her  admirable  management — Scrupu 
lous  neatness  of  the  Home — Her  labors  among  the  Freedmen  and  Refugees  at  Vicksburg — 
Her  care  of  the  wounded  from  the  Red  River  Expedition — Her  tenderness  and  cheerful 
spirit — She  accompanies  a  hospital  steamer  loaded  with  wounded  men,  to  Cairo,  and  cheers 
and  comforts  the  soldiers  on  their  voyage — Takes  charge  of  a  wounded  officer  and  conducts 
him  to  his  home — Return  to  her  duties — The  Soldiers'  Home  discontinued  in  June,  1865.  725-727 


MRS.    LUCY    E.    STARR. 

A  Clergyman's  widow— Her  service  in  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital,  St.  Louis— Her  admirable  adap 
tation  to  her  duties — Appointed  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  Matron  of  the 
Soldiers' Home  at  Memphis — Nearly  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  soldiers  received 
there  during  two  and  a  half  years — Mrs.  Starr  manages  the  Home  with  great  fidelity 
and  success — Mr.  0.  R.  Waters'  acknowledgment  of  her  services — Closing  of  the  Home — 
Mrs.  Starr  takes  charge  of  an  institution  for  suffering  freedmen  and  refugees,  in  Memphis — 
Her  faithfulness 723-730 


MISS  CHARLOTTE  BRADFORD. 

Her  reticence  in  regard  to  her  labors — The  public  and  official  life  of  ladies  occupying  positions 
in  charitable  institutions  properly  a  matter  of  public  comment  and  notice— Miss  Bradford's 
labors  in  the  Hospital  Transport  Service— The  Elm  City— The  Knickerbocker— Her  asso 
ciates  in  this  work — Other  Relief  Work — She  succeeds  Miss  Bradley  as  matron  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home  at  Washington — Her  remarkable  executive  ability,  dignity  and  tenderness 
for  the  sick  and  wounded  soldier 731,732 


UNION    VOLUNTEER    REFRESHMENT   SALOON    OF    PHILADELPHIA. 

The  labors  of  Mrs.  Lee  and  Miss  Ross  in  institutions  of  this  class— The  beginning  of  the  Union 
Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon — Rival  but  not  hostile  organization — Samuel  B.  Fales,  Esq., 
and  his  patriotic  labors — The  two  institutions  well  supplied  with  funds — Nearly  nine  hun 
dred  thousand  soldiers  fed  at  the  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon,  and  four  hundred 
thousand  at  the  Cooper  Shop — The  labors  of  the  patriotic  women  connected  with  the  or 
ganizations — Mrs.  Eliza  Q.  Plummer — Her  faithful  and  abundant  labors — Her  death  from 
over  exertion — Mrs.  Mary  B.  Wade — Her  great  age,  and  extraordinary  services — Mrs.  Ellen 
J.  Lowry— Mrs.  Margaret  Boyer— Other  ladies  and  their  constant  and  valuable  labors— The 
worthy  ladies  of  the  Cooper  Shop  Saloon 733-737 


CONTENTS.  49 

MRS.    R.    M.    BIGELOW. 

PAGE 

"Aunty  Bigelow" — Mrs.  Bigelow  a  native  of  Washington — Her  services  in  the  Indiana  Hospital 
in  the  Patent  Office  Building — "  Hot  cakes  and  mush  and  milk" — Mrs.  Billing  an  associate 
in  Mrs.  Bigelow's  Labors — Mrs.  Bigelow  the  almoner  of  many  of  the  Aid  Societies  at  the 
North — Her  skill  and  judgment  in  the  distribution  of  supplies — She  maintains  a  regular 
correspondence  with  the  soldier  boys  who  have  been  under  her  care — Her  house  a  "  Home" 
for  the  sick  soldier  or  officer  who  asked  that  he  might  be  sheltered  and  nursed  there — She 
welcomes  with  open  doors  the  hospital  workers  from  abroad — Her  personal  sorrows  IP 
the  midst  of  these  labors 738-740 

MISS    HATTIE    R.    SHARPLESS    AND    HER   ASSOCIATES. 

The  Government  Hospital  Transports  early  in  the  war — Great  improvements  made  in  them  at  a 
later  period — The  Government  Transport  Connecticut — Miss  Sharpless  serves  as  matron  on 
this  for  seventeen  months — His  previous  labors  in  army  hospitals  at  Fredericksburg,  Falls 
Church,  Antietam  and  elsewhere — Her  admirable  adaptation  to  her  work — A  true  Chris 
tian  heroine — Thirty-three  thousand  sick  and  wounded  men  under  charge  on  the  Trans 
port — Her  religious  influence  on  the  men — Miss  Hattie  S.  Reifsnyder  of  Catawissa,  Penn. 
and  Mrs.  Cynthia  Case  of  Newark,  Ohio,  her  assistants  are  actuated  by  a  si  lilar  spirit — Miss 
W.  F.  Harris  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  also  on  the  Transport,  for  some  months,  and  previously  in 
the  Indiana  Hospital,  in  Ascension  Church  and  Carver  Hospital,  and  after  leaving  the  Trans 
port  at  Harper's  Ferry  and  Winchester — Her  health  much  broken  by  her  excessive  labors — 
Devotes  herself  to  the  instruction  and  training  of  the  Freedmen  after  the  close  of  the 
war 741-743 


PAET  VI.    LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  FOE  OTHER  SERVICES  IN 
THE  NATIONAL  CAUSE. 

MRS.    ANNIE    ETHERIDGE. 

Mrs.  Etheridge's  goodness  and  purity  of  character — Her  childhood  and  girlhood  passed  in  Wis 
consin — She  marries  there — Return  of  her  father  to  Michigan — She  visits  him  and  while 
there  joins  the  Second  Michigan  Regiment,  to  attend  to  its  sick  and  wounded — Transferred 
subsequently  to  the  Third  Regiment,  and  at  the  expiration  of  its  term  of  service  joins  the 
Fifth  Michigan  Regiment — She  is  in  the  skirmish  of  Blackburn's  Ford  and  at  the  first  bat 
tle  of  Bull  Run — In  hospital  service — On  a  hospital  transport  with  Miss  Amy  M.  Bradley — 
At  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run — The  soldier  boy  torn  to  pieces  by  a  shot  while  she  is 
ministering  to  him — General  Kearny's  recognition  of  her  services — Kearny's  death  prevents 
her  receiving  promotion — At  Chancellorsville,  May  3,  1863 — She  leads  in  a  skirmish,  rides 
along  the  front  exhorting  the  men  to  do  their  duty,  and  finds  herself  under  heavy  fire — 
An  officer  killed  by  her  side  and  she  herself  slightly  wounded — Her  horse,  wounded,  runs 
•with  her— She  seeks  General  Berry  and  after  a  pleasant  interview  takes  charge  of  a 
rebel  officer,  a  prisoner,  whom  she  escorts  to  the  rear — "  I  would  risk  my  life  for  Annie,  any 
time" — General  Berry's  death — The  wounded  artillery-man — She  binds  up  his  wounds  and 
has  him  brought  to  the  hospital — Touching  letter — The  retreating  soldiers  at  Spottsylva- 
nia — Annie  remonstrates  with  them,  and  brings  them  back  into  the  fight,  under  heavy 
fire — Outside  the  lines,  and  closely  pursued  by  the  enemy — Hatcher's  Run — She  dashea 
through  the  enemy's  line  unhurt— She  receives  a  Government  appointment  at  the  close  of 

the  war — Her  modesty  and  diffidence  of  demeanor 747-753 

7 


50  CONTENTS. 


DELPHINE   P.    BAKEK. 

FAGS 

Her  birth  and  education — Character  of  her  parents — Her  lectures  on  the  sphere  and  culture  of 
women — Her  labors  in  Chicago  in  the  collection  and  distribution  of  hospital  supplies — 
Her  hospital  work — III  health — She  commences  the  publication  of  "  The  National  Banner" 
first  in  Chicago,  next  in  Washington  and  finally  in  New  York — Its  success  but  partial — Her 
efforts  long,  persistent  and  unwearied,  for  the  establishment  of  a  National  Home  for 
Soldiers — The  bill  finally  passes  Congress — Delay  in  organization — Its  cause — Miss  Baker 
meantime  endeavors  to  procure  Point  Lookout  as  a  location  for  one  of  the  National  Soldiers' 
Homes — Change  in  the  act  of  incorporation — The  purchase  of  the  Point  Lookout  property 
consummated 754-759 


MRS.    S.    BURGER   STEARNS. 

A  native  of  New  York  City — Her  education  at  the  State  Normal  School  of  Michigan — Her 
marriage — Her  husband  a  Colonel  of  volunteers — She  visits  the  hospitals  and  devotes  her 
self  to  lecturing  in  behalf  of  the  Aid  movement 760 


BARBARA    FRIETCHIE. 
Her  age— Her  patriotism— Whittier's  poem 761-763 

MRS.    HETTIE   M.    McEWEN. 

Of  revolutionary  lineage — Her  devotion  to  the  Union — Her  defiance  of  Isham  Harris'  efforts  to 
have  the  Union  flag  lowered  on  her  house — Mrs.  Hooper's  poem 764-766 

OTHER  DEFENDERS  OF  THE  FLAG. 

Mrs.  Effie  Titlow — Mrs.  Alfred  Clapp — Mrs.  Moore  (Parson  Brownlow's  daughter) — Miss  Alice 
Taylor — Mrs.  Booth — "Never  surrender  the  flag  to  traitors." 767-769 

MILITARY   HEROINES. 

Those  who  donned  the  male  attire  not  entitled  to  a  place  in  our  pages — Madame  Turchin — Her 
exploits — Bridget  Divers — "  Michigan  Bridget"  or  "  Irish  Biddy" — She  recovers  her  captain's 
body,  and  carries  it  on  her  horse  for  fifteen  miles  through  rebel  territory — Returns  after 
the  wounded,  but  is  overtaken  by  the  rebels  while  bringing  them  off  and  plundered  of  her 
ambulance  horses — Others  soon  after  provided — Accompanies  a  regiment  of  the  regular 
army  to  the  plains  after  the  war — Mrs.  Kady  Brownell — Her  skill  as  a  sharp-shooter,  and  in 
sword  exercise — Color  Bearer  in  the  Fifth  Rhode  Island  Infantry — A  skillful  nurse — Her 
husband  wounded— Discharged  from  the  army  in  1863 770-774 

THE   WOMEN    OF    GETTYSBURG. 

Mrs,  Jennie  Wade — Her  loyalty  and  courage — Her  death  during  the  battle — Miss  Carrie  Sheads, 
Principal  of  Oak  Ridgo  Seminary — Her  preservation  of  Colonel  Wheelock's  sword — Her  labors 
in  the  care  of  the  wounded — Her  health  impaired  thereby — Miss  Amelia  Harmon — Her 
patriotism  and  courage — 'Burn  the  house  if  you  will!" 775-778 


CONTEXTS.  51 

LOYAL    WOMEN    OF    THE    SOUTH. 

PAGE 

Names  of  loyal  Southern  Women  already  mentioned — The  loyal  women  of  Richmond — Their 
abundant  labors  for  Union  prisoners — Loyal  women  of  Charleston — The  Union  League — Food 
and  clothing  furnished — Loyalty  and  heroism  of  some  of  the  negro  women — Loyal  women 
of  New  Orleans — The  names  of  some  of  the  most  prominent — Loyal  women  of  the  moun 
tainous  districts  of  the  south — Their  ready  aid  to  our  escaping  prisoners — Miss  Melvina 
Stevens — Malignity  of  some  of  the  Rebel  women — Heroism  of  Loyal  women  in  East  Tennes 
see.  Northern  Georgia  and  Alabama 779-782 

MISS  HETTY  A.  JONES.     By  Horatio   G.  Jones,  Esq. 

Miss  Jones'  birth  and  lineage — She  aids  in  equipping  the  companies  of  Union  soldiers  organized 
in  her 'own  neighborhood — Her  services  in  the  Filbert  Street  Hospital — Death  of  her 
brother — Visit  to  Fortress  Monroe — She  determines  to  go  to  the  front  and  attaches  herself 
to  the  Third  Division,  Second  Corps,  Hospital  at  City  Point— Has  an  attack  of  Pleurisy— On 
her  recovery  resumes  her  labors — Is  again  attacked  and  dies  on  the  21st  of  December,  1864 — 
Her  happy  death — Mourning  of  the  convalescent  soldiers  of  the  Filbert  Street  Hospital 
over  her  death 783-786 

FINAL  CHAPTER 

THE    FAITHFUL    BUT    LESS    CONSPICUOUS    LABORERS. 

The  many  necessarily  unnamed — Ladies  who  served  at  Antietam,  Point  Lookout,  City  Point  or 
Naval  Academy  Hospital,  Annapolis — The  faithful  workers  at  Benton  Barracks  Hospital,  St. 
Louis— Miss  Lovell,  Miss  Bissell,  Mrs.  Tannehill,  Mrs.  R.  S.  Smith,  Mrs.  Gray,  Miss  Lane, 
Miss  Adams,  Miss  Spaukling,  Miss  King,  Mrs.  Day— Other  nurses  of  great  merit  appointed 
by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission — Volunteer  visitors  in  the  St.  Louis  Hospitals — Ladies 
who  ministered  to  the  soldiers  in  Quincy,  and  in  Springfield,  Illinois — Miss  Georgiana  Wil- 
lets,  Misses  Molineux  and  McCabe — Ladies  of  Cincinnati  who  served  in  the  hospitals — Mrs. 
C.  J.  Wright,  Mrs.  Starbuck,  Mrs.  Gibson,  Mrs.  Woods  and  Mrs.  Caldwell— Miss  E.  L.  Porter 
of  Niagara  Falls— Boston  ladies— Mrs.  and  Miss  Anna  Lowell,  Mrs.  0.  W.  Holmes,  Miss 
Stevenson,  Mrs.  S.  Loring,  Mrs.  Shaw,  Mrs.  Brimmer,  Miss  Rogers,  Miss  Felton. — Louisville, 
Ky.— Mrs.  Bishop  Smith  and  Mrs.  Menefee— Columbus,  Ohio— Mrs.  Hoyle,  Mrs.  Ide,  Miss 
Swayne — Mrs.  Seward  of  Utica — Mrs.  Corven,  of  Hartford,  Conn— Miss  Long,  of  Rochester — 
Mrs.  Fair,  of  Norwalk,  Ohio— Miss  Bartlett,  of  the  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  Peoria,  111— Mrs.  Rus 
sell  and  Mrs.  Comstock,  of  Michigan,  Mrs.  Dame,  of  Wisconsin — Miss  Bucklin.  of  Auburn, 
N.Y.— Miss  Louise  M.  Alcott,  of  Concord,  Mass.— Miss  Penfield,  of  Michigan— The  Misses 
Rexford  of  Illinois — Miss  Sophia  Knight,  of  South  Reading,  Mass.,  a  faithful  laborer  among 
the  Freedmen 787-794 

INDEX  OF  NAMES  OF  LADIES ...  795-800 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGB 

1.— MISS  CLARA  H.  BARTON FRONTISPIECE. 

2.— BARBARA   FRIETCIIIE VIGNETTE  TITLE. 

3.— MRS.  MARY  A.  BIOKKRDYKE 11'2 

4.— MISS  MARGARET  E.  BRECKENRTDGE '. 187 

5.— MRS.  NELLIE  MARIA  TAYLOR. , 234 

6.— MRS.  CORDELIA  A.  P.    HARVEY 260 

7.— MISS  EMILY  E.   PARSONS 27 X 

8.— MRS.  MARY  MORRIS  HUSBAND 287 

9.— MISS  MARY  J.  SAFFORD 357 

10.— MRS.  R.  H.  SPENCER 404 

11.— MISS  HATTFE  A.  DADA 431 

12.— MRS.  MARIANNE  F.   STRANAIIAN 536 

13.— MRS.  MARY  A.    L1YERMOIIE  577 

14.— MRS.  HENRIETTA  L.   COLT 60 

15.— MRS.  MARY  B.  WADE 736 

16.--ANNIE  ETHERIDGE 747 

53 


INTRODUCTION. 


A  RECORD  of  the  personal  services  of  our  American  women  in  the  late 
Civil  War,  however  painful  to  the  modesty  of  those  whom  it  brings  con 
spicuously  before  the  world,  is  due  to  the  honor  of  the  country,  to  the 
proper  understanding  of  our  social  life,  and  to  the  general  interests  of  a  sex 
whose  rights,  duties  and  capacities  are  now  under  serious  discussion.  Most 
of  the  women  commemorated  in  this  work  inevitably  lost  the  benefits  of 
privacy,  by  the  largeness  and  length  of  their  public  services,  and  their 
names  and  history  are  to  a  certain  extent  the  property  of  the  country.  At 
any  rate  they  must  suffer  the  penalty  which  conspicuous  merit  entails  upon 
its  possessors,  especially  when  won  in  fields  of  universal  interest. 

Notwithstanding  the  pains  taken  to  collect  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
the  names  and  history  of  the  women  who  in  any  way  distinguished  them 
selves  in  the  War,  and  in  spite  of  the  utmost  impartiality  of  purpose,  there 
is  no  pretence  that  all  who  served  the  country  best,  are  named  in  this 
record.  Doubtless  thousands  of  women,  obscure  in  their  homes,  and  hum 
ble  in  their  fortunes,  without  official  position  even  in  their  local  society,  and 
all  human  trace  of  whose  labors  is  forever  lost,  contributed  as  generously 
of  their  substance,  and  as  freely  of  their  time  and  strength,  and  gave  as 
unreservedly  their  hearts  and  their  prayers  to  the  cause,  as  the  most  con 
spicuous  on  the  shining  list  here  unrolled.  For  if 

"  The  world  knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men," 

it  is  still  more  true  of  its  noblest  women.  Unrewarded  by  praise,  unsullied 
by  self-complacency,  there  is  a  character  "of  no  reputation,"  which  formed 
in  strictest  retirement,  and  in  the  patient  exercise  of  unobserved  sacrifices, 
is  dearer  and  holier  in  the  eye  of  Heaven,  than  the  most  illustrious  name 
won  by  the  most  splendid  services.  Women  there  were  in  this  war,  who 
without  a  single  relative  in  the  army,  denied  themselves  for  the  whole  four 

55 


56  INTRODUCTION. 

years,  the  comforts  to  which  they  had  been  always  accustomed ;  went  thinly 
clad,  took  the  extra  blanket  from  their  bed,  never  tasted  tea,  or  sugar,  or 
flesh,  that  they  might  wind  another  bandage  round  some  unknown  soldier's 
wound,  or  give  some  parched  lips  in  the  hospital  another  sip  of  wine. 
Others  never  let  one  leisure  moment,  saved  from  lives  of  pledged  labor 
which  barely  earned  their  bread,  go  unemployed  in  the  service  of  the 
soldiers.  God  Himself  keeps  this  record !  It  is  too  sacred  to  be  trusted  to 
men. 

But  it  is  not  such  humble,  yet  exalted  souls  that  will  complain  of  the 
praise  which  to  their  neglect,  is  allotted  to  any  of  their  sisters.  The  ranks 
always  contain  some  heroes  braver  and  better  than  the  most  fortunate  and 
conspicuous  officers  of  staff  or  line  —but  they  feel  themselves  best  praised 
when  their  regiment,  their  corps,  or  their  general  is  gazetted.  And  the 
true-hearted  workers'  for  the  soldiers  among  the  women  of  this  country  will 
gladly  accept  the  recognition  given  to  the  noble  band  of  their  sisters  whom 
peculiar  circumstances  lifted  into  distinct  view,  as  a  tribute  offered  to  the 
whole  company.  Indeed,  if  the  lives  set  forth  in  this  work,  were  regarded 
as  exceptional  in  their  temper  and  spirit,  as  they  certainly  were  in  their 
incidents  and  largeness  of  sphere,  the  whole  lesson  of  the  Record  would  be 
misread.  These  women  in  their  sacrifices,  their  patriotism,  and  their  per 
sistency,  are  only  fair  representatives  of  the  spirit  of  their  whole  sex.  As 
a  rule,  American  women  exhibited  not  only  an  intense  feeling  for  the  sol 
diers  in  their  exposures  and  their  sufferings,  but  an  intelligent  sympathy 
with  the  national  cause,  equal  to  that  which  furnished  among  the  men,  two 
million  and  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  women  of  all  countries  to  weep  and  to  work  for  those 
who  encounter  the  perils  of  war.  But  the  American  women,  after  giving 
up,  with  a  principled  alacrity,  to  the  ranks  of  the  gathering  and  advancing 
army,  their  husbands  and  sons,  their  brothers  and  lovers,  proceeded  to 
organize  relief  for  them ;  and  they  did  it,  not  in  the  spasmodic  and  senti 
mental  way,  which  has  been  common  elsewhere,  but  with  a  self-controlled 
and  rational  consideration  of  the  wisest  and  best  means  of  accomplishing 
their  purpose,  which  showed  them  to  be  in  some  degree  the  products  and 
representatives  of  a  new  social  era,  and  a  new  political  development. 

The  distinctive  features  in  woman's  work  in  this  war,  were  magnitude, 
system,  thorough  co-operativeness  with  the  other  sex,  distinctness  of  pur 
pose,  business-like  thoroughness  in  details,  sturdy  persistency  to  the  close. 
There  was  no  more  general  rising  among  the  men,  than  among  the  women. 
Men  did  not  take  to  the  musket,  more  commonly  than  women  took  to  the 
needle;  and  for  every  assembly  where  men  met  for  mutual  excitation  in  the 


INTRODUCTION.  57 

service  of  the  country,  there  was  some  corresponding  gathering  of  women, 
to  stir  each  other's  hearts  and  fingers  in  the  same  sacred  cause.  All  the 
caucuses  and  political  assemblies  of  every  kind,  in  which  speech  and  song 
quickened  the  blood  of  the  men,  did  not  exceed  in  number  the  meetings, 
in  the  form  of  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  and  Sewing  Circles,  which  the 
women  held,  where  they  talked  over  the  national  cause,  and  fed  the  fires 
of  sacrifice  in  each  other's  hearts.  Probably  never  in  any  war  in  any  coun 
try,  was  there  so  universal  and  so  specific  an  acquaintance  on  the  part  of 
both  men  and  women,  with  the  principles  at  issue,  and  the  interests  at 
stake.  And  of  the  two,  the  women  were  clearer  and  more  united  than  the 
men,  because  their  moral  feelings  and  political  instincts  were  not  so  much 
affected  by  selfishness  and  business,  or  party  considerations.  The  work 
which  our  system  of  popular  education  does  for  girls  and  boys  alike,  and 
which  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes  practically  goes  further  with  girls 
than  with  .boys,  told  magnificently  at  this  crisis.  Everywhere,  well  edu 
cated  women  were  found  fully  able  to  understand  and  explain  to  their 
sisters,  the  public  questions  involved  in  the  war.  Everywhere  the  news 
papers,  crowded  with  interest  and  with  discussions,  found  eager  and  appre 
ciative  readers  among  the  gentler  sex.  Everywhere  started  up  women 
acquainted  with  the  order  of  public  business ;  able  to  call,  and  preside  over 
public  meetings  of  their  own  sex ;  act  as  secretaries  and  committees,  draft 
constitutions  and  bye-laws,  open  books,  and  keep  accounts  with  adequate 
precision,  appreciate  system,  and  postpone  private  inclinations  or  prefer 
ences  to  general  principles;  enter  into  extensive  correspondence  with  their 
own  sex:  co-operate  in  the  largest  and  most  rational  plans  proposed  by  men 
who  had  studied  carefully  the  subject  of  soldiers'  relief,  and  adhere  through 
good  report  and  through  evil  report,  to  organizations  which  commended 
themselves  to  their  judgment,  in  spite  of  local,  sectarian,  or  personal  jeal 
ousies  and  detractions. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  amount  of  consecrated  work  done  by 
the  loyal  women  of  the  North  for  the  Army.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
women  probably  gave  all  the  leisure  they  could  command,  and  all  the  money 
they  could  save  and  spare,  to  the  soldiers  for  the  whole  four  years  and  more, 
of  the  War.  Amid  discouragements  and  fearful  delays  they  never  flagged, 
but  to  the  last  increased  in  zeal  and  devotion.  And  their  work  was  as  sys 
tematic  as  it  was  universal.  A  generous  emulation  among  the  Branches  of 
the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  managed  generally  by  women, 
usually,  however,  with  some  aid  from  men,  brought  their  business  habits 
and  methods  to  an  almost  perfect  finish.  Nothing  that  men  commonly 
think  peculiar  to  their  own  methods  was  wanting  in  the  plans  of  the  women. 


58  INTRODUCTION. 

They  acknowledged  and  answered,  endorsed  and  filed  their  letters;  they 
sorted  their  stores,  and  kept  an  accurate  account  of  stock ;  they  had  their 
books  and  reports  kept  in  the  most  approved  forms ;  they  balanced  their 
cash  accounts  with  the  most  pains-taking  precision ;  they  exacted  of  each 
other  regularity  of  attendance  and  punctiliousness  of  official  etiquette. 
They  showed  in  short,  a  perfect  aptitude  for  business,  and  proved  by  their 
own  experience  that  men  can  devise  nothing  too  precise,  too  systematic  or 
too  complicated  for  women  to  understand,  apply  and  improve  upon,  where 
there  is  any  sufficient  motive  for  it. 

It  was  another  feature  of  the  case  that  there  was  no  jealousy  between 
women  and  men  in  the  work,  and  no  disposition  to  discourage,  underrate, 
or  dissociate  from  each  other.  It  seemed  to  be  conceded  that  men  had 
more  invention,  comprehensiveness  and  power  of  generalization,  and  that 
their  business  habits,  the  fruits  of  ages  of  experience,  were  at  least  worth 
studying  and  copying  by  women.  On  the  other  hand,  men,  usually  jealous 
of  woman's  extending  the  sphere  of  her  life  and  labors,  welcomed  in  this 
case  her  assistance  in  a  public  work,  and  felt  how  vain  men's  toil  and  sac 
rifices  would  be  without  woman's  steady  sympathy  and  patient  ministry  of 
mercy,  her  more  delicate  and  persistent  pity,  her  willingness  to  endure  mo 
notonous  details  of  labor  for  the  sake  of  charity,  her  power  to  open  the 
heart  of  her  husband,  and  to  keep  alive  and  flowing  the  fountains  of  com 
passion  and  love. 

No  words  are  adequate  to  describe  the  systematic,  persistent  faithfulness 
of  the  women  who  organized  and  led  the  Branches  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission.  Their  volunteer  labor  had  all  the  regularity  of  paid 
service,  and  a  heartiness  and  earnestness  which  no  paid  services  can  ever 
have.  Hundreds  of  women  evinced  talents  there,  which,  in  other  spheres 
and  in  the  other  sex,  would  have  made  them  merchant-princes,  or  great 
administrators  of  public  affairs.  Storms  nor  heats  could  keep  them  from 
their  posts,  and  they  wore  on  their  faces,  and  finally  evinced  in  their  break 
ing  constitutions,  the  marks  of  the  cruel  strain  put  upon  their  minds  and 
hearts.  They  engaged  in  a  correspondence  of  the  most  trying  kind,  requir 
ing  the  utmost  address  to  meet  the  searching  questions  asked  by  intelligent 
jealousy,  and  to  answer  the  rigorous  objections  raised  by  impatience  or  ig 
norance  in  the  rural  districts.  They  became  instructors  of  whole  townships 
in  the  methods  of  government  business,  the  constitution  of  the  Commissary 
and  Quartermaster's  Departments,  and  the  forms  of  the  Medical  Bureau. 
They  had  steadily  to  contend  with  the  natural  desire  of  the  Ail  Societies 
for  local  independeB  ce,  and  to  reconcile  neighborhoods  to  the  idea  of  being 
merged  and  lost  in  large  generalizations.  They  kept  up  the  spirit  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  59 

people  distant  from  the  war  and  the  camps,  by  a  steady  fire  of  lette  rs  full  of 
touching  incidents;  and  they  were  repaid  not  only  by  the  most  generous 
returns  of  stores,  but  by  letters  from  humble  homes  and  lonely  hearts,  so 
full  of  truth  and  tenderness,  of  wisdom  and  pity,  of  self-sacrifice  and  patri 
otic  consecration,  that  the  most  gifted  and  educated  women  in  America, 
many  of  them  at  the  head  of  the  Branches  or  among  their  Directors,  felt 
constantly  reproved  by  the  nobleness,  the  sweetness,  the  depth  of  sentiment 
that  welled  from  the  hidden  and  obscure  springs  in  the  hearts  of  farmers' 
wives  and  factory-girls. 

Nor  were  the  talents  and  the  sacrifices  of  those  at  the  larger  Depots  or 
Centres,  more  worthy  of  notice  than  the  skill  and  pains  evinced  in  arous 
ing,  maintaining  and  managing  the  zeal  and  work  of  county  or  town  socie 
ties.  Indeed,  sometimes  larger  works  are  more  readily  controlled  than 
smaller  ones;  and  jealousies  and  individual  caprices  obstruct  the  co-opera 
tion  of  villages  more  than  of  towns  and  cities. 

In  the  ten  thousand  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies  which  at  one  time  or  another 
probably  existed  in  the  country,  there  was  in  each  some  master-spirit,  whose 
consecrated  purpose  was  the  staple  in  the  wall,  from  which  the  chain  of 
service  hung  and  on  whose  strength  and  firmness  it  steadily  drew.  I  never 
visited  a  single  town  however  obscure,  that  I  did  not  hear  some  woman's 
name  which  stood  in  that  community  for  '  'Army  Service ; "  a  name  round 
which  the  rest  of  the  women  gladly  rallied ;  the  name  of  some  woman 
whose  heart  was  felt  to  beat  louder  and  more  firmly  than  any  of  the  rest  for 
the  boys  in  blue. 

Of  the  practical  talent,  the  personal  worth,  the  aptitude  for  public  ser 
vice,  the  love  of  self-sacrificing  duty  thus  developed  and  nursed  into  power, 
and  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  its  possessors  and  their  communities,  it  is 
difficult  to  speak  too  warmly.  Thousands  of  women  learned  in  this  work 
to  despise  frivolity,  gossip,  fashion  and  idleness;  learned  to  think  soberly 
and  without  prejudice  of  the  capacities  of  their  own  sex;  and  thus,  did 
more  to  advance  the  rights  of  woman  by  proving  her  gifts  and  her  fitness 
for  public  duties,  than  a  whole  library  of  arguments  and  protests. 

The  prodigious  exertions  put  forth  by  the  women  who  founded  and  con 
ducted  the  great  Fairs  for  the  soldiers  in  a  dozen  principal  cities,  and  in 
many  large  towns,  were  only  surpassed  by  the  planning  skill  and  adminis 
trative  ability  which  accompanied  their  progress,  and  the  marvellous  success 
in  which  they  terminated.  Months  of  anxious  preparation,  where  hun 
dreds  of  committees  vied  with  each  other  in  long-headed  schemes  for  secur 
ing  the  co-operation  of  the  several  trades  or  industries  allotted  to  each,  and 
during  which  laborious  days  and  anxious  nights  were  unintermittingly  given 


60  INTRODUCTION. 

to  the  wearing  work,  were  folio  wed  by  weeks  of  personal  service  in  the  fairs 
themselves,  where  the  strongest  women  found  their  vigor  inadequate  to  the 
task,  and  hundreds  laid  the  foundations  of  long  illness  and  some  of  sudden 
death.  These  sacrifices  and  far-seeing  provisions  were  justly  repaid  by  al 
most  fabulous  returns  of  money,  which  to  the  extent  of  nearly  three  mil 
lions  of  dollars,  flowed  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission.  The  chief  women  who  inaugurated  the  several  great  Fairs  at 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis, 
and  administered  these  vast  movements,  were  not  behind  the  ablest  men  in 
the  land  in  their  grasp  and  comprehension  of  the  business  in  hand,  and 
often  in  comparison  with  the  men  associated  with  them,  exhibited  a  finer 
scope,  a  better  spirit  arid  a  more  victorious  faith.  But  for  the  women  of 
America,  the  great  Fairs  would  never  have  been  born,  or  would  have  died 
ignominiously  in  their  gilded  cradles.  Their  vastness  of  conception  and 
their  splendid  results  are  to  be  set  as  an  everlasting  crown  on  woman's  ca 
pacity  for  large  and  money-yielding  enterprises.  The  women  who  led  them 
can  never  sink  back  into  obscurity. 

But  I  must  pass  from  this  inviting  theme,  where  indeed  I  feel  more  at 
home  than  in  what  is  to  follow,  to  the  consideration  of  what  naturally  occu 
pies  a  larger  space  in  this  work — however  much  smaller  it  was  in  reality. 
i.  e. ,  to  the  labors  of  the  women  who  actually  went  to  the  war,  and  worked 
in  the  hospitals  and  camps. 

Of  the  labors  of  women  in  the  hospitals  and  in  the  field,  this  book  gives 
a  far  fuller  history  than  is  likely  to  be  got  from  any  other  source,  as  this 
sort  of  service  cannot  be  recorded  in  the  histories  of  organized  work.  For, 
far  the  largest  part  of  this  work  was  done  by  persons  of  exceptional  energy 
and  some  fine  natural  aptitude  for  the  service,  which  was  independent  of 
organizations,  and  hardly  submitted  itself  to  any  rules  except  the  impulses 
of  devoted  love  for  the  work — supplying  tact,  patience  and  resources.  The 
women  who  did  hospital  service  continuously,  or  who  kept  themselves  near 
the  base  of  armies  in  the  field,  or  who  moved  among  the  camps,  and  trav 
elled  with  the  corps,  were  an  exceptional  class — as  rare  as  heroines  always 
are — a  class,  representing  no  social  grade,  but  coming  from  all — belonging 
to  no  rank  or  age  of  life  in  particular;  sometimes  young  and  sometimes 
old,  sometimes  refined  and  sometimes  rude ;  now  of  fragile  physical  aspect 
and  then  of  extraordinary  robustness — but  in  all  cases,  women  with  a 
mighty  love  and  earnestness  in  their  hearts — a  love  and  pity,  and  an  ability 
to  show  it  forth  and  to  labor  in  behalf  of  it,  equal  to  that  which  in  other 
departments  of  life,  distinguishes  poets,  philosophers,  sages  and  saints, 
from  ordinary  or  average  men. 


INTRODUCTION.  61 

Moved  by  an  indomitable  desire  to  serve  in  person  the  victims  of  wounds 
and  sickness,  a  few  hundred  women,  impelled  by  instincts  which  assured 
them  of  their  ability  to  endure  the  hardship,  overcome  the  obstacles,  and 
adjust  themselves  to  the  unusual  and  unfeminine  circumstances  in  which 
they  would  be  placed — made  their  way  through  all  obstructions  at  home, 
and  at  the  seat  of  war,  or  in  the  hospitals,  to  the  bed-sides  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  men.  Many  of  these  women  scandalized  their  friends  at  home 
by  what  seemed  their  Quixotic  resolution;  or,  they  left  their  families  under 
circumstances  which  involved  a  romantic  oblivion  of  the  recognized  and 
usual  duties  of  domestic  life;  they  forsook  their  own  children,  to  make 
children  of  a  whole  army  corps ;  they  risked  their  lives  in  fevered  hospitals ; 
they  lived  in  tents  or  slept  in  ambulance  wagons,  for  months  together;  they 
fell  sick  of  fevers  themselves,  and  after  long  illness,  returned  to  the  dd 
business  of  hospital  and  field  service.  They  carried  into  their  work  their 
womanly  tenderness,  their  copious  sympathies,  their  great-hearted  devo 
tion — and  had  to  face  and  contend  with  the  cold  routine,  the  semi-savage 
professional  indifference,  which  by  the  necessities  of  the  case,  makes  ordi 
nary  medical  supervision,  in  time  of  actual  war,  impersonal,  official,  unsym 
pathetic  and  abrupt.  The  honest,  natural  jealousy  felt  by  surgeons-in- 
charge,  and  their  ward  masters,  of  all  outside  assistance,  made  it  necessary 
for  every  woman,  who  was  to  succeed  in  her  purpose  of  holding  her  place, 
and  really  serving  the  men,  to  study  and  practice  an  address,  an  adaptation 
and  a  patience,  of  which  not  one  candidate  in  ten  was  capable.  Doubtless 
nine-tenths  of  all  who  wished  to  offer  and  thought  themselves  capable  of 
this  service,  failed  in  their  practical  efforts.  As  man}7  women  fancied  them 
selves  capable  of  enduring  hospital  life,  as  there  are  always  in  every  college, 
youth  who  believe  they  can  become  distinguished  authors,  poets  and  states 
men.  But  only  the  few  who  had  a  genius  for  the  work,  continued  in  it,  and 
succeeded  in  elbowing  room  for  themselves  through  the  never-ending 
obstacles,  jealousies  and  chagrins  that  beset  the  service.  Every  woman 
who  keeps  her  place  in  a  general  hospital,  or  a  corps  hospital,  has  to  prove 
her  title  to  be  trusted ;  her  tact,  discretion,  endurance  and  strength  of  nerve 
and  fibre.  No  one  woman  succeeded  in  rendering  years  of  hospital  service, 
who  was  not  an  exceptional  person — a  woman  of  larger  heart,  clearer  head, 
finer  enthusiasm,  and  more  mingled  tact,  courage,  firmness  and  holy  will — 
than  one  in  a  thousand  of  her  sex.  A  grander  collection  of  women — 
whether  considered  in  their  intellectual  or  their  moral  qualities,  their  heads 
or  their  hearts.  I  have  not  had  the  happiness  of  knowing,  than  the  women 
I  saw  in  the  hospitals;  they  were  the  flower  of  their  sex.  Great  as  were 
the  labors  of  thos3  who  superintended  the  operations  at  home- -of  collecting 


62  INTRODUCTION. 

and  preparing  supplies  for  the  hospitals  and  the  field,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  the  women  who  lived  in  the  hospitals,  or  among  the  soldiers,  required  a 
force  of  character  and  a  glow  of  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  of  a  rarer  kind. 
They  were  really  heroines.  They  conquered  their  feminine  sensibility  at 
the  sight  of  blood  and  wounds;  their  native  antipathy  to  disorder,  confu 
sion  and  violence ;  subdued  the  rebellious  delicacy  of  their  more  exquisite 
senses;  lived  coarsely,  and  dressed  and  slept  rudely;  they  studied  the 
caprices  of  men  to  whom  their  ties  were  simply  human— men  often  igno 
rant,  feeble-minded — out  of  their  senses — raving  with  pain  and  fever ;  they 
had  a  still  harder  service  to  bear  with  the  pride,  the  official  arrogance,  the 
hardness  or  the  folly — perhaps  the  impertinence  and  presumption  of  half- 
trained  medical  men,  whom  the  urgencies  of  the  case  had  fastened  on  the 
service.*  Their  position  was  always  critical,  equivocal,  suspected,  and  to 
be  justified  only  by  their  undeniable  and  conspicuous  merits ; — their  wisdom, 
patience  and  proven  efficiency;  justified  by  the  love  and  reverence  they  ex 
acted  from  the  soldiers  themselves ! 

True,  the  rewards  of  these  women  were  equal  to  their  sacrifices.  They 
drew  their  pay  from  a  richer  treasury  than  that  of  the  United  States  Gov 
ernment.  I  never  knew  one  of  them  who  had  had  a  long  service,  whose 
memory  of  the  grateful  looks  of  the  dying,  of  the  few  awkward  words  that 
fell  from  the  lips  of  thankful  convalescents,  or  the  speechless  eye-following 
of  the  dependent  soldier,  or  the  pressure  of  a  rough  hand,  softened  to 
womanly  gentleness  by  long  illness, — was  not  the  sweetest  treasure  of  all 
their  lives.  Nothing  in  the  power  of  the  Nation  to  give  or  to  say,  can  ever 
compare  for  a  moment  with  the  proud  satisfaction  which  every  brave 
soldier  who  risked  his  life  for  his  country,  always  carries  in  his  heart  of 
hearts.  And  no  public  recognition,  no  thanks  from  a  saved  Nation,  can 
ever  add  anything  of  much  importance  to  the  rewards  of  those  who  tasted 
the  actual  joy  of  ministering  with  their  own  hands  and  hearts  to  the  wants 
of  one  sick  and  dying  man. 

It  remains  only  to  say  a  word  about  the  influence  of  the  work  of  the 
women  in  the  War  upon  the  strength  and  unanimity  of  the  public  senti 
ment,  and  on  the  courage  and  fortitude  of  the  army  itself. 

The  participation  by  actual  work  and  service  in  the  labors  of  the  War, 


*  A  large  number  of  the  United  States  Army  and  volunteer  surgeons  were  in 
deed  men  of  the  highest  and  most  humane  character,  and  treated  the  women  who 
came  to  the  hospitals,  with  careful  and  scrupulous  consideration.  Some  women 
were  able  to  say  that  they  never  encountered  opposition  or  hindrance  from  any 
officials;  but  this  was  not  the  rule. 


INTKODUCTION.  63 

not  only  took  out  of  women's  hearts  the  soreness  which  unemployed  ener 
gies  or  incongruous  pursuits  would  have  left  there,  but  it  took  out  of  their 
mouths  the  murmurs  and  moans  which  their  deserted,  husbandless,  childless 
condition  would  so  naturally  have  provoked.  The  women  by  their  call  to 
work,  and  the  opportunity  of  pouring  their  energies,  sympathies  and  affec 
tions  into  an  ever  open  and  practical  channel,  were  quieted,  reconciled, 
upheld.  The  weak  were  borne  upon  the  bosoms  of  the  strong.  Banded 
together,  and  working  together,  their  solicitude  and  uneasiness  were  alle 
viated.  Following  in  imagination  the  work  of  their  own  hands,  they  seemed 
to  be  present  on  the  field  and  in  the  ranks ;  they  studied  the  course  of  the 
armies;  they  watched  the  policy  of  the  Government;  they  learned  the 
character  of  the  Generals ;  they  threw  themselves  into  the  war !  And  so 
they  helped  wonderfully  to  keep  up  the  enthusiasm,  or  to  rebuke  the  luke- 
warmness,  or  to  check  the  despondency  and  apathy  which  at  times  settled 
over  the  people.  Men  were  ashamed  to  doubt  where  women  trusted,  or  to 
murmur  where  they  submitted,  or  to  do  little  where  they  did  so  much.  If 
during  the  war,  home  life  had  gone  on  as  usual ;  women  engrossed  in  their 
domestic  or  social  cares ;  shrinking  from  public  questions ;  deferring  to  what 
their  husbands  or  brothers  told  them,  or  seeking  to  amuse  themselves  with 
social  pleasures  and  striving  to  forget  the  painful  strife  in  frivolous  caprices, 
it  would  have  had  a  fearful  effect  on  public  sentiment,  deepening  the  gloom 
of  every  reverse,  adding  to  the  discouragements  which  an  embarrassed 
commerce  and  trade  brought  to  men's  hearts,  by  domestic  echoes  of  weari 
ness  of  the  strife,  and  favoring  the  growth  of  a  disaffected,  compromising, 
unpatriotic  feeling,  which  always  stood  ready  to  break  out  with  any  offered 
encouragement.  A  sense  of  nearness  of  the-  people  to  the  Government 
which  the  organization  of  the  women  effected,  enlarged  their  sympathies 
with  its  movements  and  disposed  them  to  patience.  Their  own  direct  ex 
perience  of  the  difficulties  of  all  co-operative  undertakings,  broadened  their 
views  and  rendered  intelligible  the  delays  and  reverses  which  our  national 
cause  suffered.  In  short  the  women  of  the  country  were  through  the  whole 
conflict,  not  only  not  softening  the  fibres  of  war,  but  they  were  actually 
strengthening  its  sinews  by  keeping  up  their  own  courage  and  that  of  their 
households,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  larger  and  more  public  life,  the 
broader  work  and  greater  field  for  enterprise  and  self-sacrifice  afforded  them 
by  their  direct  labors  for  the  benefit  of  the  soldie  -s.  They  drew  thousands  of 
lukewarm,  or  calculating,  or  self-saving  men  into  the  support  of  the  national 
cause  by  their  practical  enthusiasm  and  devotion.  They  proved  what  has 
again  and  again  been  demonstrated,  that  what  the  women  of  a  country  resolve 
shall  be  done,  will  and  must  be  done.  They  shamed  recruits  into  the  ranks, 


64  INTRODUCTION. 

and  made  it  almost  impossible  for  deserters,  or  cowards,  or  malingerers  to 
come  home ;  they  emptied  the  pockets  of  social  idlers,  or  wealthy  drones,  into 
the  treasuries  of  the  Aid  Societies ;  and  they  compelled  the  shops  and  do 
mestic  trade  of  all  cities  to  be  favorable  to  the  war.  The  American  women 
were  nearer  right  and  more  thoroughly  united  by  this  means,  and  their  own 
healthier  instincts,  than  the  American  men.  The  Army,  whose  bayonets 
were  glittering  needles,  advanced  with  more  unbroken  ranks,  and  exerted 
almost  a  greater  moral  force  than  the  army  that  carried  loaded  muskets. 

The  Aid  Societies  and  the  direct  oversight  the  women  sought  to  give  the 
men  in  the  field,  very  much  increased  the  reason  for  correspondence  between 
the  homes  and  the  tents. 

The  women  were  proud  to  write  what  those  at  the  hearth-stone  were 
doing  for  those  who  tended  the  camp-fires,  and  the  men  were  happy  and 
cheery  to  acknowledge  the  support  they  received  from  this  home  sympathy. 
The  immense  correspondence  between  the  army  and  the  homes,  prodigious 
beyond  belief  as  it  was,  some  regiments  sending  home  a  thousand  letters  a 
week,  and  receiving  as  many  more  back ;  the  constant  transmission  to  the 
men  of  newspapers,  full  of  the  records  of  home  work  and  army  news,  pro 
duced  a  homogeneousness  of  feeling  between  the  soldiers  and  the  citizens, 
which  kept  the  men  in  the  field,  civilians,  and  made  the  people  at  home,  of 
both  sexes,  half-soldiers. 

Thus  there  never  grew  up  in  the  army  any  purely  military  and  anti-social 
or  anti-civil  sentiments.  The  soldiers  studied  and  appreciated  all  the  time 
the  moral  causes  of  the  War,  and  were  acquainted  with  the  political  as  well 
as  military  complications.  They  felt  all  the  impulses  of  home  strengthen 
ing  their  arms  and  encouraging  their  hearts.  And  their  letters  home,  as  a 
rule,  were  designed  to  put  the  best  face  upon  things,  and  to  encourage  their 
wives  and  sweet-hearts,  their  sisters  and  parents,  to  bear  their  absence  with 
fortitude,  and  even  with  cheerfulness. 

The  influence  on  the  tone  of  their  correspondence,  exerted  by  the  fact 
that  the  women  were  always  working  for  the  Army,  and  that  the  soldiers 
always  knew  they  were  working,  and  were  always  receiving  evidence  of 
their  care,  may  be  better  imagined  than  described.  It  largely  ministered  to 
that  sympathetic  unity  between  the  soldiers  and  the  country,  which  made 
our  army  always  a  corrective  and  an  inspiration  to  our  Governmental  policy, 
and  kept  up  that  fine  reciprocal  influence  between  civil  and  military  life, 
which  gave  an  heroic  fibre  to  all  souls  at  home,  and  finally  restored  us  our 
soldiers  with  their  citizen  hearts  beating  regularly  under  their  uniforms,  as 
they  dropped  them  off  at  the  last  drum-tap. 

H.  W.  B. 


WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER. 

Patriotism  in  some  form,  an  attribute  of  woman  in  all  nations  and  climes — Its  modes  of  manifesta 
tion — Paeans  for  victory — Lamentations  for  the  death  of  a  heroic  leader — Personal  leadership  by 
women— The  assassination  of  tyrants — The  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of  national  armies — The 
hospitals  established  by  the  Empress  Helena — TheBeguiues  and  their  successors — The  cantiuieres, 
vivandieres,  etc. — Other  modes  in  which  women  manifested  their  patriotism — Florence  Nightingale 
and  her  labors — The  results — The  awakening  of  patriotic  zeal  among  American  women  at  the 
opening  of  the  war — The  organization  of  philanthropic  effort — Hospital  nurses — Miss  Dix's  re 
jection  of  great  numbers  of  applicants  on  account  of  youth — Hired  nurses — Their  services  gene 
rally  prompted  by  patriotism  rather  than  pay — The  State  relief  agents  (ladies)  at  Washington — 
The  hospital  transport  system  of  the  Sanitary  Commission — Mrs.  Harris's,  Miss  Barton's,  Mrs. 
Fales',  Miss  Gilson's,  and  other  ladies'  services  at  the  front  during  the  battles  of  1862 — Services  of 
other  ladies  at  Chancellorsville,  at  Gettysburg — The  Field  Relief  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and 
services  of  ladies  in  the  later  battles — Voluntary  services  of  women  in  the  armies  in  the  field  at 
the  West — Services  in  the  hospitals,  of  garrisons  and  fortified  towns — Soldiers'  homes  and  lodges, 
and  their  matrons — Homes  for  Refugees — Instruction  of  the  Freedmen — Refreshment  Saloons  at 
Philadelphia— Regular  visiting  of  hospitals  in  the  large  cities— The  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  and 
their  mode  of  operation — The  extraordinary  labors  of  the  managers  of  tho  Branch  Societies — 
Government  clothing  contracts — Mrs.  Springer,  Miss  Wormeley  and  Miss  Gilson — The  managers 
of  the  local  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies — The  sacrifices  made  by  the  poor  to  contribute  supplies — 
Examples — The  labors  of  the  young  and  the  old — Inscriptions  on  articles — The  poor  seamstress — 
Five  hundred  bushels  of  wheat — The  five  dollar  gold  piece — The  army  of  martyrs — The  effect  of 
this  female  patriotism  in  stimulating  the  courage  of  the  soldiers — Lack  of  persistence  in  this  work 
among  the  Women  of  the  South — Present  and  future — Effect  of  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  in 
elevating  and  ennobling  the  female  character. 

N  intense  and  passionate  love  of  country,  holding,  for 
the  time,  all  other  ties  in  abeyance,  has  been  a  not  un 


common  trait  of  character  among  women  of  all  countries 
and  climes,  throughout  the  ages  of  human  history.  In 
the  nomadic  races  it  assumed  the  form  of  attachment  to  the  patri 
archal  rules  and  chiefs  of  the  tribe;  in  the  more  savage  of  the 
localized  nations,  it  was  reverence  for  the  ruler,  coupled  with  a 
filial  regard  for  the  resting-places  and  graves  of  their  ancestors. 
9  65 


66 

But  in  the  more  highly  organized  and  civilized  eouiitr.es,  it 
was  the  institutions  of  the  nation,  its  religion,  its  sacred  traditions, 
its  history,  as  well  as  its  kings,  its  military  leaders,  and  its  priests, 
that  were  the  objects  of  the  deep  and  intense  patriotic  devotion  of 
its  noblest  and  most  gifted  women. 

The  manifestations  of  this  patriotic  zeal  were  diverse  in  different 
countries,  and  at  different  periods  in  the  same  country.  At  one 
time  it  contented  itself  with  triumphal  pseans  and  dances  over 
victories  won  by  the  nation's  armies,  as  in  the  case  of  Miriam  and 
the  maidens  of  Israel  at  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptians  at  the 
Red  Sea,  or  the  victories  of  the  armies  led  by  David  against  the 
Philistines;  or  in  the  most  heart-rending  lamentations  over  the 
fall  of  the  nation's  heroes  on  the  field  of  battle,  as  in  the  mourning 
of  the  Trojan  maidens  over  the  death  of  Hector;  at  other  times, 
some  brave  and  heroic  spirit,  goaded  with  the  sense  of  her 
country's  wrongs,  girds  upon  her  own  fair  and  tender  form,  the 
armor  of  proof,  and  goes  forth,  the  self-constituted  but  eagerly 
welcomed  leader  of  its  mailed  hosts,  to  overthrow  the  nation's  foes. 
We  need  only  recal  Deborah,  the  avenger  of  the  Israelites  against 
the  oppressions  of  the  King  of  Canaan ;  Boadicea,  the  daring 
Queen  of  the  Britons,  and  in  later  times,  the  heroic  but  hapless 
maid  of  Orleans,  Jeanne  d'Arc;  and  in  the  Hungarian  war  of 
1848,  the  brave  but  unfortunate  Countess  Teleki,  as  examples  of 
these  female  patriots. 

In  rare  instances,  this  sense  of  the  nation's  sufferings  from  a 
tyrant's  oppression,  have  so  wrought  upon  the  sensitive  spirit,  as 
to  stimulate  it  to  the  determination  to  achieve  the  country's  free 
dom  by  the  assassination  of  the  oppressor.  It  was  thus  that  Jael 
brought  deliverance  to  her  country  by  the  murder  of  Sisera; 
Judith,  by  the  assassination  of  Holofernes;  and  in  modern  times, 
Charlotte  Corday  sought  the  rescue  of  France  from  the  grasp  of 
the  murderous  despot,  Marat,  by  plunging  the  poniard  to  his 
heart. 

A  far  nobler,  though  less  demonstrative  manifestation  of  patri- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  67 

otic  devotion  than  either  of  these,  is  that  which  has  prompted 
women  in  all  ages  to  become  ministering  angels  to  the  sick,  the 
suffering,  and  the  wounded  among  their  countrymen  who  have 
periled  life  and  health  in  the  nation's  cause. 

Occasionally,  even  in  the  earliest  recorded  wars  of  antiquity,  we 
find  high-born  maidens  administering  solace  to  the  wounded 
heroes  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  attempting  to  heal  their  wounds 
by  the  appliances  of  their  rude  and  simple  surgery;  but  it  was 
only  the  favorite  leaders,  never  the  common  soldier,  or  the  subor 
dinate  officer,  who  received  these  gentle  attentions.  The  influence 
of  Christianity,  in  its  earlier  development,  tended  to  expand  the 
sympathies  and  open  the  heart  of  woman  to  all  gentle  and  holy 
influences,  and  it  is  recorded  that  the  wounded  Christian  soldiers 
were,  where  it  was  possible,  nursed  and  cared  for  by  those  of  the 
same  faith,  both  men  and  women. 

In  the  fifth  century,  the  Empress  Helena  established  hospitals  for 
the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  of  the  empire,  on  the  routes  between 
Rome  and  Constantinople,  and  caused  them  to  be  carefully  nursed. 
In  the  dark  ages  that  followed,  and  amid  the  downfall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  the  uprearing  of  the  Gothic  kingdoms  that 
succeeded,  there  was  little  room  or  thought  of  mercy ;  but  the  fair- 
haired  women  of  the  North  encouraged  their  heroes  to  deeds  of 
valor,  and  at  times,  ministered  in  their  rude  way  to  their  wounds. 
The  monks,  at  their  monasteries,  rendered  some  care  and  aid  to 
the  wounded  in  return  for  their  exemption  from  plunder  and  ra 
pine,  and  in  the  ninth  century,  an  order  of  women  consecrated  to 
the  work,  the  Beguines,  predecessors  of  the  modern  Sisters  of 
Charity,  was  established  "  to  minister  to  the  sick  and  wounded  of 
the  armies  which  then,  and  for  centuries  afterward,  scarred  the 
face  of  continental  Europe  with  battle-fields."  With  the  Beguines, 
however,  and  their  successors,  patriotism  was  not  so  much  the 
controlling  motive  of  action,  as  the  attainment  of  merit  by  those 
deeds  of  charity  and  self-sacrifice. 

In  the  wars  of  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  the  early  part 


68  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

of  the  nineteenth  century,  while  the  hospitals  had  a  moderate 
share  of  fair  ministrants,  chiefly  of  the  religious  orders,  the  only 
female  service  on  the  battle-field  or  in  the  camp,  often  the  scene  of 
fatal  epidemics,  was  that  of  the  cantmieres,  vivandieres,filles  du 
regiment,  and  other  camp  followers,  who,  att  some  risk  of  reputa 
tion,  accompanied  the  armies  in  their  march,  and  brought  to  the 
wounded  and  often  dying  soldier,  on  the  field  of  battle,  the 
draught  of  water  which  quenched  his  raging  thirst,  or  the  cordial, 
which  sustained  his  fast  ebbing  strength  till  relief  could  come. 
Humble  of  origin,  and  little  circumspect  in  morals  as  many  of 
these  women  were,  they  are  yet  deserving  of  credit  for  the  courage 
and  patriotism  which  led  them  to  brave  all  the  horrors  of  death, 
to  relieve  the  suffering  of  the  wounded  of  the  regiments  to  which 
they  were  attached.  Up  to  the  period  of  the  Crimean  war  in 
1854,  though  there  had  been  much  that  was  praiseworthy  in  the 
manifestations  of  female  patriotism  in  connection  with  the  move 
ments  of  great  armies,  there  had  never  been  any  systematic  minis 
tration,  prompted  by  patriotic  devotion,  to  the  relief  of  the  suffering 
sick  and  wounded  of  those  armies. 

There  were  yet  other  modes,  however,  in  which  the  women  of 
ancient  and  modern  times  manifested  their  love  of  their  country. 
The  Spartan  mother,  who,  without  a  tear,  presented  her  sons  with 
their  shields,  with  the  stern  injunction  to  return  with  them,  or 
upon  them,  that  is,  with  honor  untarnished,  or  dead, — the  fair 
dames  and  maidens  of  Carthage,  who  divested  themselves  of  their 
beautiful  tresses,  to  furnish  bowstrings  for  their  soldiers, — the 
Jewish  women  who  preferred  a  death  of  torture,  to  the  acknow 
ledgment  of  the  power  of  the  tyrant  over  their  country's  rulers, 
and  their  faith — the  women  of  the  Pays-de  Vaud,  whose  moun 
tain  fastnesses  and  churches  were  dearer  to  them  than  life — the 
thousands  of  wives  and  mothers,  who  in  our  revolutionary  strug 
gle,  and  in  our  recent  war,  gave  up  freely  at  their  country's  call, 
their  best  beloved,  regretting  only  that  they  had  no  more  to  give ; 
knowing  full  well,  that  in  giving  them  up  they  condemned 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  69 

themselves  to  penury  and  want,  to  hard,  grinding  toil,  and 
privations  such  as  they  had  never  before  experienced,  and  not  im 
probably  to  the  rending,  by  the  rude  vicissitudes  of  war,  of  those 
ties,  dearer  than  life  itself — those  who  in  the  presence  of  ruffians, 
capable  of  any  atrocity  dared,  and  in  many  cases  suffered,  a  violent 
death,  and  indignities  worse  than  death,  by  their  fearless  defense 
of  the  cause  and  flag  of  their  country — and  yet  again,  those  who, 
in  peril  of  their  lives,  for  the  love  they  bore  to  their  country, 
guided  hundreds  of  escaped  prisoners,  through  the  regions  haunted 
by  foes,  to  safety  and  freedom — all  these  and  many  others,  whose 
deeds  of  heroism  we  have  not  space  so  much  as  to  name,  have 
shown  their  love  of  country  as  fully  and  worthily,  as  those  who 
in  hospital,  in  camp  or  on  battle-field  have  ministered  to  the 
battle-scarred  hero,  or  those  who,  in  all  the  panoply  of  war,  have 
led  their  hosts  to  the  deadly  charge,  or  the  fierce  affray  of  con 
tending  armies. 

Florence  Nightingale,  an  English  gentlewoman,  of  high  social 
position  and  remarkable  executive  powers,  was  the  first  of  her 
sex,  at  least  among  English-speaking  nations,  to  systematize  the 
patriotic  ardor  of  her  countrywomen,  and  institute  such  measures 
of  reform  in  the  care  of  sick  and  Avounded  soldiers  in  military 
hospitals,  as  should  conduce  to  the  comfort  and  speedy  recovery 
of  their  inmates.  She  had  voluntarily  passed  through  the  course 
of  training,  required  of  the  hospital  nurses  and '  assistants,  in 
Pastor  Fliedner's  Deaconess7  Institution,  at  Kaiserswerth  on  the 
Rhine,  before  she  entered  upon  her  great  mission  in  the  hospitals 
at  Scutari.  She  wras  ably  seconded  in  her  labors  by  other  ladies 
of  rank  from  England,  who,  actuated  only  by  patriotic  zeal,  gave 
themselves  to  the  work  of  bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  cheerful 
ness  out  of  gloom,  cleanliness  out  of  the  most  revolting  filth,  and 
the  sunshine  of  health  out  of  the  lazar  house  of  corruption  and 
death.  In  this  heroic  undertaking  they  periled  their  lives,  more 
certainly,  than  those  who  took  part  in  the  fierce  charge  of  Bala 
clava.  Some  fell  victims  to  their  untiring  zeal ;  others,  and  Miss 


70  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Nightingale  among  the  number,  were  rendered  hopeless  invalids 
for  life,  by  their  exertions. 

Fifty  years  of  peace  had  rendered  our  nation  more  entirely 
unacquainted  with  the  arts  of  war,  than  was  Great  Britain,  when, 
at  the  close  of  forty  years  of  quiet,  she  again  marshalled  her 
troops  in  battle  array.  But  though  the  transition  was  sudden 
from  the  arts  of  peace  to  the  din  and  tumult  of  war,  and  the 
blunders,  both  from  inexperience  and  dogged  adherence  to  rou 
tine,  were  innumerable,  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  especially 
the  hearts  of  the  gentler  sex,  were  resolutely  set  upon  one  thing ; 
that  the  citizen  soldiers  of  the  nation  should  be  cared  for,  in 
sickness  or  in  health,  as  the  soldiers  of  no  nation  had  ever  been 
before.  Soldiers7  Aid  Societies,  Sewing  Circles  for  the  soldiers, 
and  Societies  for  Relief,  sprang  up  simultaneously  with  the  organ 
ization  of  regiments,  in  every  village,  town,  and  city  throughout 
the  North.  Individual  benevolence  kept  pace  with  organized 
charity,  and  the  managers  of  the  freight  trains  and  expresses, 
running  toward  Washington,  were  in  despair  at  the  fearful  accu 
mulation  of  freight  for  the  soldiers,  demanding  instant  transpor 
tation.  It  was  inevitable  that  there  should  be  waste  and  loss  in 
this  lavish  outpouring ;  but  it  was  a  manifestation  of  the  patriotic 
feeling  which  throbbed  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  which, 
through  four  years  of  war,  never  ceased  or  diminished  aught  of 
its  zeal,  or  its'  abundant  liberality.  It  was  felt  instinctively,  that 
there  would  soon  be  a  demand  for  nurses  for  the  sick  and 
wounded,  and  fired  by  the  noble  example  of  Florence  Nightin 
gale,  though  too  often  without  her  practical  training,  thousands 
of  young,  fair,  and  highly  educated  women  offered  themselves  for 
the  work,  and  strove  for  opportunities  for  their  gentle  ministry, 
as  in  other  days  they  might  have  striven  for  the  prizes  of  fortune. 

Soon  order  emerged  from  the  chaos  of  benevolent  impulse ;  the 
Sanitary  Commission  and  its  affiliated  Societies  organized  and 
wisely  directed  much  of  the  philanthropic  effort,  which  would 
otherwise  have  failed  of  accomplishing  its  intended  work  through 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  71 

misdirection;  while  other  Commissions,  Associations,  and  skil 
fully  managed  personal  labors,  supplemented  what  was  lacking  in 
its  earlier  movements,  and  ere  long  the  Christian  Commission 
added  intellectual  and  religious  aliment  to  its  supplies  for  the 
wants  of  the  physical  man. 

Of  the  thousands  of  applicants  for  the  position  of  Hospital 
Nurses,  the  greater  part  were  rejected  promptly  by  the  stern,  but 
experienced  lady,  to  whom  the  Government  had  confided  the 
delicate  and  responsible  duty  of  making  the  selection.  The 
ground  of  rejection  was  usually  the  youthfulness  of  the  appli 
cants  ;  a  sufficient  reason,  doubtless,  in  most  cases,  since  the  en 
thusiasm,  mingled  in  some  instances,  perhaps,  with  romance, 
which  had  prompted  the  offer,  would  often  falter  before  the  ex 
tremely  unpoetic  realities  of  a  nurse's  duties,  and  the  youth  and 
often  frail  health  of  the  applicants  would  soon  cause  them  to 
give  way  under  labors  which  required  a  mature  strength,  a  firm 
will,  and  skill  in  all  household  duties.  Yet  "to  err  is  human," 
and  it  need  not  surprise  us,  as  it  probably  did  not  Miss  Dix,  to 
learn,  that  in  a  few  instances,  those  whom  she  had  refused  to  com 
mission  on  account  of  their  youthfulness,  proved  in  other  fields, 
their  possession  of  the  very  highest  qualifications  for  the  care  of 
the  sick  and  wounded.  Miss  Gilson  was  one  of  the  most  remark 
able  of  these  instances ;  and  it  reflects  no  discredit  on  Miss  Dix's 
powers  of  discrimination,  that  she  should  not  have  discovered,  in 
that  girlish  face,  the  indications  of  those  high  abilities,  of  which 
their  possessor  was  as  yet  probably  unconscious.  The  rejection 
of  so  many  of  these  volunteer  nurses  necessitated  the  appointment 
of  many  from  another  class,— young  women  of  culture  and  educa 
tion,  but  generally  from  the  humbler  walks  of  life,  in  whose  hearts 
the  fire  of  patriotism  was  not  less  ardent  and  glowing  than  in 
those  of  their  wealthier  sisters.  Many  of  these,  though  they 
would  have  preferred  to  perform  their  labors  without  fee  or 
reward,  were  compelled,  from  the  necessities  of  those  at  home,  to 
accept  the  wholly  inadequate  pittance  (twelve  dollars  a  month 


72 

and  theii  food)  which  was  offered  them  by  the  Government,  but 
they  served  in  their  several  stations  with  a  fidelity,  intelligence, 
and  patient  devotion  which  no  money  could  purchase.  The  tes 
timony  received  from  all  quarters  to  the  faithfulness  and  great 
moral  worth  of  these  nurses,  is  greatly  to  their  honor.  Not  one 
of  them,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  ever  disgraced  her  calling,  or 
gave  cause  for  reproach.  We  fear  that  so  general  an  encomium 
could  not  truthfully  be  bestowed  on  all  the  volunteer  nurses. 

But  nursing  in  the  hospitals,  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  work 
to  which  patriotism  called  American  women.  There  was  the 
collection  and  forwarding  to  the  field,  there  to  be  distributed  by 
the  chaplains,  or  some  specially  appointed  agent,  of  those  supplies 
which  the  families  and  friends  of  the  soldiers  so  earnestly  desired 
to  send  to  them;  socks,  shirts,  handkerchiefs,  havelocks,  and 
delicacies  in  the  way  of  food.  The  various  states  had  their  agents, 
generally  ladies,  in  Washington,  who  performed  these  duties,  du 
ring  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  while  as  yet  the  Sanitary 
Commission  had  not  fully  organized  its  system  of  Field  Relief. 
In  the  West,  every  considerable  town  furnished  its  quota  of  sup 
plies,  and,  after  every  battle,  voluntary  agents  undertook  their 
distribution. 

During  McClellan's  peninsular  campaign,  a  Hospital  Transport 
service  was  organized  in  connection  with  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
which  numbered  among  its  members  several  gentlemen  and  ladies 
of  high  social  position,  whose  labors  in  improvising,  often  from 
the  scantiest  possible  supplies,  the  means  of  comfort  and  healing 
for  the  fever-stricken  and  wounded,  resulted  in  the  preservation 
of  hundreds  of  valuable  lives. 

Mrs.  John  Harris,  the  devoted  and  heroic  Secretary  of  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  Philadelphia,  had  already,  in  the  Penin 
sular  campaign,  encountered  all  the  discomforts  and  annoyances 
of  a  life  in  the  camp,  to  render  what  assistance  she  could  to  the 
sick  and  wounded,  while  they  were  yet  in  the  field  or  camp  hos 
pital.  At  Cedar  Mountain,  and  in  the  subsequent  battles  of 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  73 

August,  in  Pope's  Campaign,  Miss  Barton,  Mrs.  T.  J.  Fales,  and 
some  others  also  brought  supplies  to  the  field,  and  ministered  to 
the  wounded,  while  the  shot  and  shell  were  crashing  around 
them,  and  Antietam  had  its  representatives  of  the  fair  sex,  angels 
of  mercy,  but  for  whose  tender  and  judicious  ministrations,  hun 
dreds  and  perhaps  thousands  would  not  have  seen  another  morn 
ing's  light.  In  the  race  for  Richmond  which  followed,  Miss 
Barton's  train  was  hospital  and  diet  kitchen  to  the  Ninth  Corps, 
and  much  of  the  time  for  the  other  Corps  also.  At  Fredericks- 
burg,  Mrs.  Harris,  Mrs.  Lee,  Mrs.  Plummer,  Mrs.  Fales,  and 
Miss  Barton,  and  we  believe  also,  Miss  Gilson,  were  all  actively 
engaged.  A  part  of  the  same  noble  company,  though  not  all, 
were  at  Chancellorsville. 

At  Gettysburg,  Mrs.  Harris  was  present  and  actively  engaged, 
and  as  soon  as  the  battle  ceased,  a  delegation  of  ladies  connected 
with  the  Sanitary  Commission  toiled  most  faithfully  to  alleviate 
the  horrors  of  war.  In  the  subsequent  battles  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  the  Field  Relief  Corps  of  the  Sanitary  Commission 
with  its  numerous  male  and  female  collaborators,  after,  or  at  the 
time  of  all  the  great  battles,  the  ladies  connected  with  the  Chris 
tian  Commission  and  a  number  of  efficient  independent  workers, 
did  all  in  their  power  to  relieve  the  constantly  swelling  tide  of 
human  suffering,  especially  during  that  period  of  less  than  ninety 
days,  when  more  than  ninety  thousand  men,  wounded,  dying,  or 
dead,  covered  the  battle-fields  with  their  gore. 

In  the  West,  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  and  the  subsequent 
engagements  of  Buell's  campaign,  women  of  the  highest  social 
position  visited  the  battle-field,  and  encountered  its  horrors,  to 
minister  to  those  who  were  suffering,  and  bring  them  relief. 
Among  these,  the  names  of  Mrs.  Martha  A.  Wallace,  the  widow 
of  General  W.  H.  L.  Wallace,  who  fell  in  the  battle  of  Shiloh ; 
of  Mrs.  Harvey,  the  widow  of  Governor  Louis  Harvey  of  Wis 
consin,  who  was  drowned  while  on  a  mission  of  philanthropy  to 
the  W  seonsin  soldiers  wounded  at  Shiloh;  and  the  sainted  Mar 
io 


74 

garet  E.  Breckinridge  of  St.  Louis,  will  be  readily  recalled. 
During  Grant's  Yicksburg  campaign,  as  well  as  after  Rosecrans' 
battles  of  Stone  River  and  Chickamauga,  there  were  many  of 
these  heroic  women  who  braved  all  discomforts  and  difficulties  to 
bring  healing  and  comfort  to  the  gallant  soldiers  who  had  fallen 
on  the  field.  Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore,  of  Chicago,  visited 
Grant's  camp  in  front  of  Vicksburg,  more  than  once,  and  by 
their  exertions,  saved  his  army  from  scurvy;  Mrs.  Porter,  Mrs. 
Bickerdyke,  and  several  others  are  deserving  of  mention  for  their 
untiring  zeal  both  in  these  and  Sherman's  Georgian  campaigns. 
Mrs.  Bickerdyke  has  won  undying  renown  throughout  the 
Western  armies  as  pre-eminently  the  friend  of  the  private  soldier. 

As  our  armies,  especially  in  the  West  and  Southwest,  won 
more  and  more  of  the  enemy's  territory,  the  important  towns  of 
which  were  immediately  occupied  as  garrisons,  hospital  posts, 
and  secondary  bases  of  the  armies,  the  work  of  nursing  and  pro 
viding  special  diet  and  comfort  in  the  general  hospitals  at  these 
posts,  which  were  often  of  great  extent,  involved  a  vast  amount  of 
labor  and  frequently  serious  privation,  and  personal  discomfort 
on  the  part  of  the  nurses.  Some  of  these  who  volunteered  for 
the  work  were  remarkable  for  their  earnest  and  faithful  labors  in 
behalf  of  the  soldiers,  under  circumstances  which  would  have  dis 
heartened  any  but  the  most  resolute  spirits.  We  may  name 
without  invidiousness  among  these,  Mrs.  Colfax,  Miss  Maertz, 
Miss  Melcenia  Elliott,  Miss  Parsons,  Miss  Adams,  and  Miss 
Bray  ton,  who,  with  many  others,  perhaps  equally  faithful,  by 
their  constant  assiduity  in  their  duties,  have  given  proof  of  their 
ardent  love  of  their  country. 

To  provide  for  the  great  numbers  of  men  discharged  from  the 
hospitals  while  yet  feeble  and  ill,  and  without  the  means  of  going 
to  their  often  distant  homes,  and  the  hundreds  of  enfeebled  and 
mutilated  soldiers,  whose  days  of  service  were  over,  and  who, 
often  in  great  bodily  weakness,  sought  to  obtain  the  pay  due 
them  from  the  Government,  and  not  unseldom  died  in  the  effort; 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  75 

the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Western  Sani 
tary  Commission  established  Soldiers'  Homes  at  Washington, 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,,  Louisville,  Nashville,  St.  Louis,  Memphis, 
Vicksburg,  and  other  places.  In  these.,  these  disabled  men 
found  food  and  shelter,  medical  attendance  when  needed,  assist 
ance  in  collecting  their  dues,  and  aid  in  their  transportation 
homeward.  To  each  of  these  institutions,  a  Matron  was  assigned. 

'  O  * 

often  with  female  assistants.  The  duties  of  these  Matrons  were 
extremely  arduous,  but  they  were  performed  most  nobly.  To 
some  of  these  homes  were  attached  a  department  for  the  mothers, 
wives  and  daughters  of  the  wounded  soldiers,  who  had  come  on 
to  care  for  them,  and  who  often  found  themselves,  when  ready  to 
return,  penniless,  and  without  a  shelter.  To  these,  a  helping 
hand,  and  a  kind  welcome,  was  ever  extended. 

To  these  should  be  added  the  Soldiers7  Lodges,  established  at 
some  temporary  stopping-places  on  the  routes  to  and  from  the 
great  battle-fields;  places  where  the  soldier,  fainting  from  his 
wearisome  march,  found  refreshment,  and  if  sick,  shelter  and 
care;  and  the  wounded,  on  their  distressing  journey  from  the 
battle-field  to  the  distant  hospitals,  received  the  gentle  ministra 
tions  of  women,  to  allay  their  thirst,  relieve  their  painful  posi 
tions,  and  strengthen  their  wearied  bodies  for  further  journeyings. 
There  were  also,  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  many  other  of  the 
Northern  cities,  Soldiers'  Homes  or  Depots,  not  generally  con 
nected  with  the  Sanitary  Commission,  in  which  invalid  soldiers 
were  cared  for  and  their  interests  protected.  In  all  these  there 
were  efficient  and  capable  Matrons.  In  the  West,  there  were 
also  Homes  for  Refugees,  families  of  poor  whites  generally  though 
not  always  sufferers  for  their  Union  sentiments,  sent  north  by  the 
military  commanders  from  all  the  States  involved  in  the  rebel 
lion.  Reduced  to  the  lowest  depths  of  poverty,  often  suffering 
absolute  starvation,  usually  dirty  and  of  uncleanly  habits,  in 
many  cases  ignorant  in  the  extreme,  and  intensely  indolent,  these 
poor  creatures  had  often  little  to  recommend  them  to  the  sym- 


76 

pathy  of  their  northern  friends,  save  their  common  humanity,  and 
their  childlike  attachment  to  the  Union  cause.  Yet  on  these, 
women  of  high  culture  and  refinement,  women  who,  but  for  the 
fire  of  patriotism  which  burned  in  their  hearts,  would  have  turned 
away,  sickened  at  the  mental  and  moral  degradation  which  seemed 
proof  against  all  instruction  or  tenderness,  bestowed  their  constant 
and  unwearying  care,  endeavoring  to  rouse  in  them  the  instinct 
of  neatness  and  the  love  of  household  duties;  instructing  their 
children,  and  instilling  into  the  darkened  minds  of  the  adults 
some  ideas  of  religious  duty,  and  some  gleams  of  intelligence.. 
No  mission  to  the  heathen  of  India,  of  Tartary,  or  of  the  African 
coasts,  could  possibly  have  been  more  hopeless  and  discouraging; 
but  they  triumphed  over  every  obstacle,  and  in  many  instances 
had  the  happiness  of  seeing  these  poor  people  restored  to  their 
southern  homes,  with  higher  aims,  hopes,  and  aspirations,  and 
with  better  habits,  and  more  intelligence,  than  they  had  ever 
before  possessed. 

The  camps  and  settlements  of  the  freedmen  were  also  the  ob 
jects  of  philanthropic  care.  To  these,  many  highly  educated 
women  volunteered  to  go,  and  establishing  schools,  endeavored  to 
raise  these  former  slaves  to  the  comprehension  of  their  privileges 
and  duties  as  free  men.  The  work  was  arduous,  for  though  there 
was  a  stronger  desire  for  learning,  and  a  quicker  apprehension  of 
religious  and  moral  instruction,  among  the  freedmen  than  among 
the  refugees,  their  slave  life  had  made  them  fickle,  untruthful,  and 
to  some  extent,  dishonest  and  unchaste.  Yet  the  faithful  and 
indefatigable  teachers  found  their  labors  wonderfully  successful, 
and  accomplished  a  great  amount  of  good. 

Another  and  somewhat  unique  manifestation  of  the  patriotism 
of  our  American  women,  was  the  service  of  the  Refreshment 
Saloons  at  Philadelphia.  For  four  years,  the  women  of  that  por 
tion  of  Philadelphia  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Navy  Yard, 
responded,  by  night  or  by  day,  to  the  signal  gun,  fired  whenever 
one  or  more  regiments  of  soldiers  were  passing  through  the  city, 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  77 

and  hastening  to  the  Volunteer  or  the  Cooper  Shop  Refreshment 
Saloons,  spread  before  the  soldiers  an  ample  repast,  and  served 
them  with  a  cordiality  and  heartiness  deserving  all  praise.  Four 
hundred  thousand  soldiers  were  fed  by  these  willing  hands  and 
generous  hearts,  and  in  hospitals  connected  with  both  Refreshment 
Saloons  the  sick  were  tenderly  cared  for. 

In  the  large  general  hospitals  of  Washington,  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis,  in  addition  to  the  volun 
teer  and  paid  nurses,  there  were  committees  of  ladies,  who,  on 
alternate  days,  or  on  single  days  of  each  week,  were  accustomed 
to  visit  the  hospitals,  bringing  delicacies  and  luxuries,  preparing 
special  dishes  for  the  invalid  soldiers,  writing  to  their  friends  for 
them,  etc.  To  this  sacred  duty,  many  women  of  high  social 
position  devoted  themselves  steadily  for  nearly  three  years,  alike 
amid  the  summer's  heat  and  the  winter's  cold,  never  failing  of 
visiting  the  patients,  to  whom  their  coming  was  the  most  joyous 
event  of  the  otherwise  gloomy  day. 

But  these  varied  forms  of  manifestation  of  patriotic  zeal  would 
have  been  of  but  little  material  service  to  the  soldiers,  had  there 
not  been  behind  them,  throughout  the  loyal  North,  a  vast  net 
work  of  organizations  extending  to  every  village  and  hamlet,  for 
raising  money  and  preparing  and  forwarding  supplies  of  what 
ever  was  needful  for  the  welfare  of  the  sick  and  wounded.  We 
have  already  alluded  to  the  spontaneity  and  universality  of  these 
organizations  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  They  were  an  out 
growth  alike  of  the  patriotism  and  the  systematizing  tendencies 
of  the  people  of  the  North.  It  might  have  been  expected  that 
the  zeal  which  led  to  their  formation  would  soon  have  cooled, 
and,  perhaps,  this  would  have  been  the  case,  but  for  two  causes, 
viz.:  that  they  very  early  became  parts  of  more  comprehensive 
organizations  officered  by  women  of  untiring  energy,  and  the 
most  exalted  patriotic  devotion;  and  that  the  events  of  the  war 
constantly  kept  alive  the  zeal  of  a  few  in  each  society,  who 
spurred  on  the  laggards,  and  encouraged  the  faint-hearted.  These 


78  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  Ladies'  Aid  Associations,  Alert  Clubs, 
Soldiers'  Eelief  Societies,  or  by  whatever  other  name  they  were 
called,  were  usually  auxiliary  to  some  Society  in  the  larger  cities, 
to  which  their  several  contributions  of  money  and  supplies  were 
sent,  by  which  their  activity  and  labors  were  directed,  and  which 
generally  forwarded  to  some  central  source  of  supply,  their  dona 
tions  and  its  own.  The  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  had 
its  branches,  known  under  various  names,  as  Branch  Commissions, 
General  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  Associates,  Local  Sanitary  Com 
missions,  etc.,  at  Boston,  Albany,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  Buffalo, 
Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago,  and  three  central  organiza 
tions,  the  Women's  Central  Association  of  Relief,  in  New  York, 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  at  Washington,  and  the  Western  Depot 
of  Supplies,  at  Louisville,  Kentucky.  Affiliated  to  these  were 
over  twelve  thousand  local  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies.  The  Western 
Sanitary  Commission  had  but  one  central  organization,  besides  its 
own  depot,  viz. :  The  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  of  St.  Louis, 
which  had  a  very  considerable  number  of  auxiliaries  in  Missouri 
and  Iowa.  The  Christian  Commission  had  its  branches  in  Bos 
ton,  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Baltimore,  Buffalo,  Cincinnati,  Chi 
cago,  and  St.  Louis,  and  several  thousand  local  organizations 
reported  to  these.  Aside  from  these  larger  bodies,  there  were  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Association  of  Philadelphia,  with  numerous  auxil 
iaries  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Baltimore  Ladies'  Relief  Association, 
the  New  England  Soldiers'  Relief  Association  of  New  York; 
and  during  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  Sanitary  Commissions 
in  Iowa,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  State  Relief  Societies  in  Wis 
consin,  Ohio,  Michigan,  New  York,  and  some  of  the  other  States, 
with  their  representative  organizations  in  Washington.  Several 
Central  Aid  Societies  having  large  numbers  of  auxiliaries,  acted 
independently  for  the  first  two  years,  but  were  eventually  merged 
in  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Prominent  among  these  were  the 
Hartford  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  having  numerous  auxiliaries 
throughout  Connecticut,  the  Pittsburg  Reliof  Committee,  draw- 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  79 

ing  its  supplies  from  the  circumjacent  country,  and  we  believe, 
also,  the  Penn  Eelief  Society,  an  organization  among  the  Friends 
of  Philadelphia  and  vicinity.  The  supplies  for  the  Volunteer 
and  Cooper  Shop  Refreshment  Saloons  of  Philadelphia,  were 
contributed  by  the  citize.is  of  that  city  and  vicinity. 

When  it  is  remembered,  that  by  these  various  organizations,  a 
sum  exceeding  fifty  millions  of  dollars  Avas  raised,  during  a  little 
more  than  four  years,  for  the  comfort  and  welfare  of  the  soldiers, 
their  families,  their  widows,  and  their  orphans,  we  may  be  certain 
that  there  was  a  vast  amount  of  work  done  by  them.  Of  this 
aggregate  of  labor,  it  is  difficult  to  form  any  adequate  idea.  The 
ladies  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  Branch  or  Central  orsraniza- 

o 

tions,  worked  day  after  day,  during  the  long  and  hot  days  of 
summer,  and  the  brief  but  cold  ones  of  winter,  as  assiduously 
and  steadily,  as  any  merchant  in  his  counting-house,  or  the 
banker  at  his  desk,  and  exhibited  business  abilities,  order,  fore 
sight,  judgment,  and  tact,  such  as  are  possessed  by  very  few  of 
the  most  eminent  men  of  business  in  the  country.  The  extent 
of  their  operations,  too,  was  in  several  instances  commensurate 
with  that  of  some  of  our  merchant  princes.  Miss  Louisa  Lee 
Schuyler  and  Miss  Ellen  Collins,  of  the  Women's  Central  Asso 
ciation  of  Kelief  at  New  York,  received  and  disbursed  in  sup 
plies  and  money,  several  millions  of  dollars  in  value;  Mrs. 
Kouse,  Miss  Mary  Clark  Brayton,  and  Miss  Ellen  F.  Terry,  of 
the  Cleveland  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  somewhat  more  than  a  mil 
lion;  Miss  Abby  May,  of  Eoston,  not  far  from  the  same  amount; 
Mrs.  Hoge,  and  Mrs.  Livermore,  of  the  N.  W.  Sanitary  Com 
mission,  over  a  million;  while  Mrs.  Seymour,  of  Buffalo,  Miss 
Valeria  Campbell,  of  Detroit,  Mrs.  Colt,  of  Milwaukie,  Miss 
Rachel  W.  McFadden,  of  Pittsburg,  Mrs.  Hoadley,  and  Mrs. 
Mendenhall,  of  Cincinnati,  Mrs.  Clapp,  and  Miss  H.  A.  Adams, 
of  the  St.  Louis  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  Mrs.  Joel  Jones,  and  Mrs. 
John  Harris,  of  the  Philadelphia  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  Mrs. 
Stranahan,  and  Mrs.  Archer,  of  Brooklyn,  if  they  did  not  do 


80 

quite  so  large  a  business,  at  least  rivaled  the  merchants  of  the 
smaller  cities,  in  the  extent  of  their  disbursements;  and  when  it 
is  considered,  that  these  ladies  were  not  only  the  managers  and 
financiers  of  their  transactions,  but  in  most  cases  the  book 
keepers  also,  we  think  their  right  to  be  regarded  as  possessing 
superior  business  qualifications  will  not  be  questioned. 

But  some  of  these  lady  managers  possessed  still  other  claims 
to  our  respect,  for  their  laborious  and  self-sacrificing  patriotism. 
It  occurred  to  several  ladies  in  different  sections  of  the  country, 
as  they  ascertained  the  suffering  condition  of  some  of  the  fami 
lies  of  the  soldiers,  (the  early  volunteers,  it  will  be  remembered, 
received  no  bounties,  or  very  trifling  ones),  that  if  they  could 
secure  for  them,  at  remunerative  prices,  the  making  of  the  sol 
diers'  uniforms,  or  of  the  hospital  bedding  and  clothing,  they 
might  thus  render  them  independent  of  charity,  and  capable  of 
self-support. 

Three  ladies  (and  perhaps  more),  Mrs.  Springer,  of  St.  Louis, 
in  behalf  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  that  city,  Miss  Katherine 
P.  Wormeley,  of  Newport,  B,.  L,  and  Miss  Helen  L.  Gilson,  of 
Chelsea,  Mass.,  applied  to  the  Governmental  purveyors  of  clothing, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  this  work.  There  was  necessarily 
considerable  difficulty  in  accomplishing  their  purpose.  The  army 
of  contractors  opposed  them  strongly,  and  in  the  end,  these  ladies 
were  each  obliged  to  take  a  contract  of  large  amount  themselves, 
in  order  to  be  able  to  furnish  the  work  to  the  wives  and  daughters 
of  the  soldiers.  In  St.  Louis,  the  terms  of  the  contract  were 
somewhat  more  favorable  than  at  the  East,  and  on  the  expiration 
of  one,  another  was  taken  up,  and  about  four  hundred  women 
were  supplied  with  remunerative  work  throughout  the  whole  period 
of  the  war.  The  terms  of  the  contract  necessitated  the  careful  in 
spection  of  the  clothing,  and  the  certainty  of  its  being  well  made, 
by  the  lady  contractors;  but  in  point  of  fact,  it  was  all  cut  and 
prepared  for  the  sewing-women  by  Mrs.  Springer  and  her  asso 
ciates,  who,  giving  their  services  to  this  work,  divided  among 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  81 

their  employes  the  entire  sum  received  for  each  contract,  paying 
them  weekly  for  their  work.  The  strong  competition  at  the  East, 
rendered  the  price  paid  for  the  work,  for  which  contracts  were 
taken  by  Miss  Wormeley  and  Miss  Gilson,  less  than  at  the  West, 
but  Miss  Gilson,  and,  we  believe,  Miss  Wormeley  also,  raised  an 
additional  sum,  and  paid  to  the  sewing-women  more  than  the 
contract  price  for  the  work.  It  required  a  spirit  thoroughly 
imbued  with  patriotism  and  philanthropy  to  carry  on  this  work, 
for  the  drudgery  connected  with  it  was  a  severe  tax  upon  the 
strength  of  those  who  undertook  it.  In  the  St.  Louis  contracts, 
the  officers  and  managers  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  rendered  as 
sistance  to  Mrs.  Springer,  who  had  the  matter  in  charge,  so  far  as 
they  could,  but  not  satisfied  with  this,  one  of  their  number,  the 
late  Mrs.  Palmer,  spent  a  portion  of  every  day  in  visiting  the 
soldiers'  families  who  were  thus  employed,  and  whenever  addi 
tional  aid  was  needed,  it  was  cheerfully  and  promptly  bestowed. 
In  this  noble  work  of  Christian  charity,  Mrs.  Palmer  overtasked 
her  physical  powers,  and  after  a  long  illness,  she  passed  from 
earth,  to  be  reckoned  among  that  list  of  noble  martyrs,  who  sacri 
ficed  life  for  the  cause  of  their  country. 

But  it  was  not  the  managers  and  leaders  of  these  central  asso 
ciations  alone  whose  untiring  exertions,  and  patient  fidelity  to 
their  patriotic  work  should  excite  our  admiration  and  reverence. 
Though  moving  in  a  smaller  circle,  and  dealing  with  details 
rather  than  aggregates,  there  were,  in  almost  every  village  and 
town,  those  whose  zeal,  energy,  and  devotion  to  their  patriotic 
work,  was  as  worthy  of  record,  and  as  heroic  in  character,  as  the 
labors  of  their  sisters  in  the  cities.  We  cannot  record  the  names 
of  those  thousands  of  noble  women,  but  their  record  is  on  high, 
and  in  the  grand  assize,  their  zealous  toil  to  relieve  their  suffering 
brothers,  who  were  fighting  or  had  fought  the  nation's  battles, 
will  be  recognized  by  Him,  who  regards  every  such  act  of  love 
and  philanthropy  as  done  to  Himself. 

Nor  are  these,  alone,  among  those  whose  deeds  of  love  and 
11 


82  WOMAN'S  WOKK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

patriotism  are  inscribed  in  the  heavenly  record.  The  whole  his 
tory  of  the  contributions  for  relief  is  glorified  by  its  abundant  in 
stances  of  self-sacrifice.  The  rich  gave,  often,  largely  and  nobly 
from  their  wealth ;  but  a  full  moiety  of  the  fifty  millions  of  volun 
tary  gifts,  came  from  the  hard  earnings,  or  patient  labors  of  the 
poor,  often  bestowed  at  the  cost  of  painful  privation.  Incidents 
like  the  following  were  of  every-day  occurrence,  during  the  later 
years  of  the  war :  "  In  one  of  the  mountainous  countries  at  the 
North,  in  a  scattered  farming  district,  lived  a  mother  and  daughters, 
too  poor  to  obtain  by  purchase,  the  material  for  making  hospital 
clothing,  yet  resolved  to  do  something  for  the  soldier.  Twelve 
miles  distant,  over  the  mountain,  and  accessible  only  by  a  road 
almost  impassable,  was  the  county-town,  in  which  there  was  a 
Relief  Association.  Borrowing  a  neighbor's  horse,  either  the 
mother  or  daughters  came  regularly  every  fortnight,  to  procure 
from  this  society,  garments  to  make  up  for  the  hospital.  They 
had  no  money;  but  though  the  care  of  their  few  acres  of  sterile 
land  devolved  upon  themselves  alone,  they  could  and  would  find 
time  to  work  for  the  sufferers  in  the  hospitals.  At  length,  curious 
to  know  the  secret  of  such  fervor  in  the  cause,  one  of  the  managers 
of  the  association  addressed  them :  "  You  have  some  relative,  a  son, 
or  brother,  or  father,  in  the  war,  I  suppose?"  "No!"  was  the 
reply,  "not  now;  our  only  brother  fell  at  Ball's  Bluff."  "Why 
then,"  asked  the  manager,  "do  you  feel  so  deep  an  interest  in  this 
work?"  "Our  country's  cause  is  the  cause  of  God,  and  we  would 
do  what  we  can,  for  His  sake,"  was  the  sublime  reply. 

Take  another  example.  "  In  that  little  hamlet  on  the  bleak 
and  barren  hills  of  New  England,  far  away  from  the  great  city  or 
even  the  populous  village,  you  will  find  a  mother  and  daughter 
living  in  a  humble  dwelling.  The  husband  and  father  has  lain 
for  many  years  'neath  the  sod  in  the  graveyard  on  the  hill  slope; 
the  only  son,  the  hope  and  joy  of  both  mother  and  sister,  at  the 
call  of  duty,  gave  himself  to  the  service  of  his  country,  and  left 
those  whom  he  loved  as  his  own  life,  to  toil  at  home  alone.  By 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  83 

and  bye,  at  "Williamsburg,  or  Fair  Oaks,  or  in  that  terrible  re 
treat  to  James  River,  or  at  Cedar  Mountain,  it  matters  not  which, 
the  swift  speeding  bullet  laid  him  low,  and  after  days,  or  it  may 
be  weeks  of  terrible  suffering,  he  gave  up  his  young  life  on  the 
altar  of  his  country.  The  shock  was  a  terrible  one  to  those  lone 
dwellers  on  the  snowy  hills.  He  was  their  all,  but  it  was  for  the 
cause  of  Freedom,  of  Right,  of  God ;  and  hushing  the  wild  beating 
of  their  hearts  they  bestir  themselves,  in  their  deep  poverty,  to 
do  something  for  the  cause  for  which  their  young  hero  had  given 
his  life.  It  is  but  little,  for  they  are  sorely  straitened ;  but  the 
mother,  though  her  heart  is  wrapped  in  the  darkness  of  sorrow, 
saves  the  expense  of  mourning  apparel,  and  the  daughter  turns 
her  faded  dress ;  the  little  earnings  of  both  are  carefully  hoarded, 
the  pretty  chintz  curtains  which  had  made  their  humble  room 
cheerful,  are  replaced  by  paper,  and  by  dint  of  constant  saving, 
enough  money  is  raised  to  purchase  the  other  materials  for  a  hos 
pital  quilt,  a  pair  of  socks,  and  a  shirt,  to  be  sent  to  the  Relief 
Association,  to  give  comfort  to  some  poor  wounded  soldier,  tossing 
in  agony  in  some  distant  hospital.  And  this,  with  but  slight 
variation  is  the  history  of  hundreds,  and  perhaps  thousands  of 
the  articles  sent  to  the  soldiers'  aid  societies. 

This  fire  of  patriotic  zeal,  while  it  glowed  alike  in  the  hearts  of 
the  rich  and  poor,  inflamed  the  young  as  well  as  the  old.  Little 
girls,  who  had  not  attained  their  tenth  year,  or  who  had  just 
passed  it,  denied  themselves  the  luxuries  and  toys  they  had  long 
desired,  and  toiled  with  a  patience  and  perseverance  wholly  foreign 
to  childish  nature,  to  procure  or  make  something  of  value  for  their 
country's  defenders.  On  a  pair  of  socks  sent  to  the  Central  Asso 
ciation  of  Relief,  was  pinned  a  paper  with  this  legend :  "  These 
stockings  were  knit  by  a  little  girl  five  years  old,  and  she  is  going 
to  knit  some  more,  for  mother  said  it  will  help  some  poor  soldier." 
The  official  reports  of  the  Women's  Soldiers7  Aid  Society  of 
Northern  Ohio,  the  Cleveland  branch  of  the  Sanitary  Commis 
sion,  furnish  the  following  incident:  "Every  Saturday  morning 


84  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

finds  Emma  Andrews,  ten  years  of  age,  at  the  rooms  of  the  Aid 
Society  with  an  application  for  work.  Her  little  basket  is  soon 
filled  with  pieces  of  half-worn  linen,  which,  during  the  week,  she 
cuts  into  towels  or  handkerchiefs ;  hems,  and  returns,  neatly 
washed  and  ironed,  at  her  next  visit.  Her  busy  fingers  have 
already  made  two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  towels,  and  the  patri 
otic  little  girl  is  still  earnestly  engaged  in  her  work."  Holidays 
and  half  holidays  in  the  country  were  devoted  by  the  little  ones 
with  great  zeal,  to  the  gathering  of  blackberries  and  grapes,  for  the 
preparations  of  cordials  and  native  wines  for  the  hospitals,  and  the 
picking,  paring  and  drying  peaches  and  apples,  which,  in  their 
abundance,  proved  a  valuable  safeguard  against  scurvy,  which 
threatened  the  destruction  or  serious  weakening  of  our  armies, 
more  than  once.  In  the  cities  and  large  villages  the  children, 
with  generous  self-denial,  gave  the  money  usually  expended  for 
fireworks  to  purchase  onions  and  pickles  for  the  soldiers,  to  pre 
vent  scurvy.  A  hundred  thousand  dollars,  it  is  said,  was  thus 
consecrated,  by  these  little  ones,  to  this  benevolent  work. 

In  the  days  of  the  Sanitary  Fairs,  hundreds  of  groups  of  little 
girls  held  their  miniature  fairs,  stocked  for  the  most  part  with 
articles  of  their  own  production,  upon  the  door  step,  or  the  walk 
in  front  of  their  parents'  dwellings,  or  in  the  wood-shed,  or  in 
some  vacant  room,  and  the  sums  realized  from  their  sales,  vary 
ing  from  five  to  one  hundred  dollars;  were  paid  over,  without 
any  deduction  for  expenses,  since  labor  and  attendance  were  volun 
tary  and  the  materials  a  gift,  to  the  treasuries  of  the  great  fairs 
then  in  progress. 

Nor  were  the  aged  women  lacking  in  patriotic  devotion.  Such 
inscriptions  as  these  were  not  uncommon.  "The  fortunate  owner 
of  these  socks  is  secretly  informed,  that  they  are  the  one  hundred 
and  ninety-first  pair  knit  for  our  brave  boys  by  Mrs.  Abner  Bart- 
lett,  of  Medford,  Mass.,  now  aged  eighty-five  years." 

A  barrel  of  hospital  clothing  sent  from  Conway,  Mass.,  con 
tained  a  pair  of  socks  knit  by  a  lady  ninety-seven  years  old,  who 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  80 

declared  h  ^rself  read}7  and  anxious  to  do  all  she  could.  A  home 
spun  blanket  bore  the  inscription,  "  This  blanket  was  carried  by 
Milly  Aldrich,  who  is  ninety-three  years  old,  down  hill  and  up 
hill,  one  and  a-half  miles,  to  be  given  to  some  soldier." 

A  box  of  lint  bore  this  touching  record,  "Made  in  a  sick-room 
where  the  sunlight  has  not  entered  for  nine  years,  but  where  God 
has  entered,  and  where  two  sons  have  bade  their  mother  good 
bye,  as  they  have  gone  out  to  the  war." 

Every  one  knows  the  preciousness  of  the  household  linen  which 
has  been  for  generations  an  heirloom  in  a  family.  Yet  in  nume 
rous  instances,  linen  sheets,  table-cloths,  and  napkins,  from  one 
hundred  and  twenty  to  two  hundred  years  old,  which  no  money 
could  have  purchased,  were  dedicated,  often  by  those  who  had 
nought  else  to  give,  to  the  service  of  the  hospital. 

An  instance  of  generous  and  self-denying  patriotism  related  by 
Mrs.  D.  P.  Livermore,  of  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission, 
deserves  a  record,  in  this  connection,  as  it  was  one  which  has  had 
more  than  one  counterpart  elsewhere.  "Some  two  or  three 
months  ago,  a  poor  girl,  a  seamstress,  came  to  our  rooms.  'I  do 
not  feel  right/  she  said,  'that  I  am  doing  nothing  for  our  soldiers 
in  the  hospitals,  and  have  resolved  to  do  something  immediately. 
Which  do  you  prefer — that  I  should  give  money,  or  buy  material 
and  manufacture  it  into  garments  ?' '; 

"  You  must  be  guided  by  your  circumstances/'  was  the  answer 
made  her;  "we  need  both  money  and  supplies,  and  you  must  do 
that  which  is  most  convenient  for  you." 

"  I  prefer  to  give  you  money,  if  it  will  do  as  much  good." 

"  Very  well;  then  give  money,  which  we  need  badly,  and 
without  which  we  cannot  do  what  is  most  necessary  for  our  brave 
sick  men." 

"Then  I  will  give  you  the  entire  earnings  of  the  next  two 
weeks.  Fd  give  more,  but  I  have  to  help  support  my  mother 
who  is  an  invalid.  Generally  I  make  but  one  vest  a  day,  but  I 
will  work  earli  ;r  and  later  these  two  weeks."  In  two  weeks  she 


86  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

came  again,  the  poor  sewing  girl,  her  face  radiant  with  the  con 
sciousness  of  philanthropic  intent.  Opening  her  porte-monnaie, 
she  counted  out  nineteen  dollars  and  thirty-seven  cents.  Every 
penny  was  earned  by  the  slow  needle,  and  she  had  stitched  away 
into  the  hours  of  midnight  on  every  one  of  the  working  days  of 
the  week.  The  patriotism  which  leads  to  such  sacrifices  as 
these,  is  not  less  deserving  of  honor  than  that  which  finds  scope 
for  its  energies  in  ministering  to  the  wounded  on  the  battle-field 
or  in  the  crowded  wards  of  a  hospital. 

Two  other  offerings  inspired  by  the  true  spirit  of  earnest  and 
active  philanthropy,  related  by  the  same  lady,  deserve  a  place 
here. 

"  Some  farmers'  wives  in  the  north  of  Wisconsin,  eighteen  miles 
from  a  railroad,  had  given  to  the  Commission  of  their  bed  and 
table  linen,  their  husbands7  shirts  and  drawers,  their  scanty 
supply  of  dried  and  canned  fruits,  till  they  had  exhausted  their 
ability  to  do  more  in  this  direction.  Still  they  were  not  satisfied. 
So  they  cast  about  to  see  what  could  be  done  in  another  way. 
They  were  all  the  wives  of  small  farmers,  lately  moved  to  the 
West,  all  living  in  log  cabins,  where  one  room  sufficed  for 
kitchen,  parlor,  laundry,  nursery  and  bed-room,  doing  their  own 
house-work,  sewing,  baby-tending,  dairy-work,  and  all.  What 
could  they  do? 

"  They  were  not  long  in  devising  a  way  to  gratify  the  longings 
of  their  motherly  and  patriotic  hearts,  and  instantly  set  about 
carrying  it  into  action.  They  resolved  to  beg  wheat  of  the 
neighboring  farmers,  and  convert  it  into  money.  Sometimes  on 
foot,  and  sometimes  with  a  team,  amid  the  snows  and  mud  of 
early  spring,  they  canvassed  the  country  for  twenty  and  twenty- 
five  miles  around,  everywhere  eloquently  pleading  the  needs  of 
the  blue-coated  soldier  boys  in  the  hospitals,  the  eloquence  every 
where  acting  as  an  open  sesame  to  the  granaries.  Now  they 
obtained  a  little  from  a  rich  man,  and  then  a  great  deal  from  a 
poor  man — deeds  of  benevolence  are  half  the  time  in  an  inverse 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  87 

ratio  to  the  ability  of  the  benefactors — till  they  had  accumulated 
nearly  five  hundred  bushels  of  wheat.  This  they  sent  to  market, 
obtained  the  highest  market  price  for  it,  and  forwarded  the  pro 
ceeds  to  the  Commission.  As  we  held  this  hard-earned  money 
in  our  hands,  we  felt  that  it  was  consecrated,  that  the  holy  pur 
pose  and  resolution  of  these  noble  women  had  imparted  a  sacred- 
ness  to  it." 

Very  beautiful  is  the  following  incident,  narrated  by  the  same 
lady,  of  a  little  girl,  one  of  thousands  of  the  little  ones,  wrho 
have,  during  the  war,  given  up  precious  and  valued  keepsakes  to 
aid  in  ministering  to  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  "  A  little 
girl  not  nine  years  old,  with  sweet  and  timid  grace,  came  into  the 
rooms  of  the  Commission,  and  laying  a  five  dollar  gold-piece  on 
our  desk,  half  frightened,  told  us  its  history.  'My  uncle  gave 
me  that  before  the  war,  and  I  was  going  to  keep  it  always;  but 
he's  got  killed  in  the  army,  and  mother  says  now  I  may  give  it 
to  the  soldiers  if  I  want  to — and  I'd  like  to  do  so.  I  don't  sup 
pose  it  will  buy  much  for  them,  will  it?";  We  led  the  child  to 
the  store-room,  and  proceeded  to  show  her  how  valuable  her  gift 
was,  by  pointing  out  what  it  would  buy — so  many  cans  of  con 
densed  milk,  or  so  many  bottles  of  ale,  or  pounds  of  tea,  or  cod 
fish,  etc.  Her  face  brightened  with  pleasure.  But  when  we 
explained  to  her  that  her  five  dollar  gold-piece  was  equal  to  seven 
dollars  and  a  half  in  greenbacks,  and  told  her  how  much  comfort 
we  had  been  enabled  to  carry  into  a  hospital,  with  as  small  an 
amount  of  stores  as  that  sum  would  purchase,  she  fairly  danced 
with  joy. 

"  Oh,  it  will  do  lots  of  good,  won't  it?"  And  folding  her 
hands  before  her,  she  begged,  in  her  charmingly  modest  way, 
" Please  tell  me  something  that  you've  seen  in  the  hospitals?" 
A  narrative  of  a  few  touching  events,  not  such  as  would  too 
severely  shock  the  little  creature,  but  which  plainly  showed  the 
necessity  of  continued  benevolence  to  the  hospitals,  filled  her 
sweet  eyes  with  tears,  and  drew  Ironi  her  the  resolution,  "  to  save 


88 

all  her  money,  and  to  get  all  the  girls  to  do  so,  to  buy  things  for 
tin-  wounded  soldiers." 

Innumerable  have  been  the  methods  by  which  the  loyalty  and 
patriotism  of  our  countrywomen  have  manifested  themselves;  no 
memorial  can  ever  record  the  thousandth  part  of  their  labors, 
their  toils,  or  their  sacrifices;  sacrifices  which,  in  so  many  in 
stances,  comprehended  the  life  of  the  earnest  and  faithful  worker. 
A.  grateful  nation  and  a  still  more  grateful  army  will  ever  hold 
in  remembrance,  such  martyrs  as  Margaret  Breckinridge,  Anna 
M.  Ross,  Arabella  Griffith  Barlow,  Mrs.  Howland,  Mrs.  Plum- 
mer,  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Palmer,  Mrs.  S.  C.  Pomeroy,  Mrs.  C.  M. 
Kirkland,  Mrs.  David  Dudley  Field,  and  Sweet  Jenny  Wade,  of 
Gettysburg,  as  well  as  many  others,  who,  though  less  widely 
known,  laid  down  their  lives  as  truly  for  the  cause  of  their 
country;  and  their  names  should  be  inscribed  upon  the  ever 
during  granite,  for  they  were  indeed  the  most  heroic  spirits  of  the 
war,  and  to  them,  belong  its  unfading  laurels  and  its  golden  crowns. 

And  yet,  we  are  sometimes  inclined  to  hesitate  in  our  esti 
mate  of  the  comparative  magnitude  of  the  sacrifices  laid  upon 
the  Nation's  altar;  not  in  regard  to  these,  for  she  who  gave 
her  life,  as  well  as  her  services,  to  the  Nation's  cause,  gave  all 
she  had  to  give;  but  in  reference  to  the  others,  who,  though 
serving  the  cause  faithfully  in  their  various  ways,  yet  returned 
unscathed  to  their  homes.  Great  and  noble  as  were  the  sacrifices 
made  by  these  women,  and  fitted  as  they  were  to  call  forth  our 
admiration,  were  they  after  all,  equal  to  those  of  the  mothers, 
sisters,  and  daughters,  who,  though  not  without  tears,  yet  calmly, 
and  with  hearts  burning  with  the  fire  of  patriotism,  willingly, 
gave  up  their  best  beloved  to  fight  for  the  cause  of  their  country 
and  their  God?  A  sister  might  give  up  an  only  brother,  the 
playmate  of  her  childhood,  her  pride,  and  her  hope;  a  daughter 
might  bid  adieu  to  a  father  dearly  beloved,  whose  care  and  gui 
dance  she  still  needs  and  will  continue  to  need.  A  mother  might, 
perchance,  relinquish  her  only  son,  he  on  whom  she  had  hoped 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  89 

to  lean,  as  the  strong  staff  and  the  beautiful  rod  of  her  old  age; 
all  this  might  be,  with  sorrow  indeed,  and  a  deep  and  abiding 
sense  of  loneliness,  not  to  be  relieved,  except  by  the  return  of 
that  father,  brother,  or  son.  But  the  wife,  who,  fully  worthy  of 
that  holy  name,  gave  the  parting  hand  to  a  husband  who  was 
dearer,  infinitely  dearer  to  her  than  father,  son,  or  brother,  and 
saw  him  go  forth  to  the  battle-field,  Avhere  severe  wounds  or 
sudden  and  terrible  death,  wrere  almost  certainly  to  be  his 
portion,  sacrificed  in  that  one  act  all  but  life,  for  she  relinquished 
all  that  made  life  blissful.  Yet  even  in  this  holocaust  there  were 
degrees,  gradations  of  sacrifice.  The  wife  of  the  officer  might, 
perchance,  have  occasion  to  see  how  her  husband  was  honored 
and  advanced  for  his  bravery  and  good  conduct,  and  while  he 
was  spared,  she  was  not  likely  to  suffer  the  pangs  of  poverty. 
In  these  particulars,  how  much  more  sad  was  the  condition  of 
the  wife  of  the  private  soldier,  especially  in  the  earlier  years  of 
the  war.  To  her,  except  the  letters  often  long  delayed  or  cap 
tured  on  their  route,  there  were  no  tidings  of  her  husband,  ex 
cept  in  the  lists  of  the  wounded  or  the  slain ;  and  her  home,  often 
one  of  refinement  and  taste,  was  not  only  saddened  by  the  absence 
of  him  who  was  its  chief  joy,  but  often  stripped  of  its  best  be 
longings,  to  help  out  the  scanty  pittance  which  rewarded  her  own 
severe  toil,  in  furnishing  food  and  clothing  for  herself  and  her 
little  ones.  Cruel,  grinding  poverty,  was  too  often  the  portion, 
of  these  poor  women.  At  the  West,  women  tenderly  and  care 
fully  reared,  were  compelled  to  undertake  the  rude  labors  of  the 
field,  to  provide  bread  for  their  families.  And  when,  to  so  many 
of  these  poor  women  who  had  thus  struggled  with  poverty,  and 
the  depressing  influences  of  loneliness  and  weariness,  there  came 
the  sad  intelligence,  that  the  husband  so  dearly  loved,  was  among 
the  slain,  or  that  he  had  been  captured  and  consigned  to  death  by 
starvation  and  slow  torture  at  Anderson ville,  where  even  now  he 
might  be  filling  an  unknown  grave,  what  wonder  is  it  that  in 
numerous  cases  the  burden  was  too  heavy  for  the  wearied  spirit, 

12 


90  ROMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

and  insanity  supervened,  or  the  broken  heart  found  rest  and  re 
union  with  the  loved  and  lost  in  the  grave. 

Yet  in  many  instances,  the  heart  that  seemed  nigh  to  break 
ing,  found  solace  in  its  sorrow,  in  ministering  directly  or  indi 
rectly  to  the  wounded  soldier,  and  forgetting  its  own  misery, 
brought  to  other  hearts  and  homes  consolation  and  peace.  This 
seems  to  us  the  loftiest  and  most  divine  of  all  the  manifestations 
of  the  heroic  spirit;  it  is  nearest  akin  in  its  character  to  the  con 
duct  of  Him,  who  while  "  he  was  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief,"  yet  found  the  opportunity,  with  his  infinite  tender 
ness  and  compassion,  to  assuage  every  sorrow  and  soothe  every 
grief  but  his  own. 

The  effect  of  this  patriotic  zeal  and  fervor  on  the  part  of  the 
wives,  mothers,  sisters,  and  daughters  of  the  loyal  North,  in 
stimulating  and  encouraging  the  soldiers  to  heroic  deeds,  was 
remarkable.  Napoleon  sought  to  awaken  the  enthusiasm  and 
love  of  fame  of  his  troops  in  Egypt,  by  that  spirit-stirring  word, 
"  Soldiers,  from  the  height  of  yonder  pyramids  forty  centuries  look 
down  upon  you."  But  to  the  soldier  fighting  the  battles  of  free 
dom,  the  thought  that  in  every  hamlet  and  village  of  the  loyal 
North,  patriotic  women  were  toiling  and  watching  for  his  welfare, 
and  that  they  were  ready  to  cheer  and  encourage  him  in  the 
darkest  hour,  to  medicine  his  wounds,  and  minister  to  his  sickness 
and  sorrows  in  the  camp,  on  the  battle-field,  or  in  the  hospital 
wards,  was  a  far  more  grateful  and  inspiring  sentiment,  than  the 
mythical  watch  and  ward  of  the  spectral  hosts  of  a  hundred  cen 
turies  of  the  dead  past. 

The  loyal  soldier  felt  that  he  was  fighting,  so  to  speak,  under 
the  very  eyes  of  his  countrywomen,  and  he  was  prompted  to 
higher  deeds  of  daring  and  valor  by  the  thought.  In  the  smoke 
and  flame  of  battle,  he  bore,  or  followed  the  flag,  made  and  con 
secrated  by  female  hands  to  his  country's  service;  many  of  the 
articles  which  contributed  to  his  comfort,  and  strengthened  his 
good  right  arm,  and  inspirited  his  heart  for  the  day  of  battle 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER.  91 

were  the  products  of  the  toil  and  the  gifts  of  his  countrywomen ; 
and  he  knew  right  well,  that  if  he  should  fall  in  the  fierce  con 
flict,  the  gentle  ministrations  of  woman  would  be  called  in  requi 
sition,  to  bind  up  his  wounds,  to  cool  his  fevered  brow,  to 
minister  to  his  fickle  or  failing  appetite,  to  soothe  his  sorrows, 
to  communicate  with  his  friends,  and  if  death  came  to  close  his 
eyes,  and  comfort,  so  far  as  might  be  those  who  had  loved  him. 
This  knowledge  strengthened  him  in  the  conflict,  and  enabled 
him  to  strike  more  boldly  and  vigorously  for  freedom,  until  the 
time  came  when  the  foe,  dispirited  and  exhausted,  yielded  up  his 
last  vantage  ground,  and  the  war  was  over. 

The  Rebel  soldiers  were  not  thus  sustained  by  home  influences. 
At  first,  indeed,  Aid  Societies  were  formed  all  over  the  South, 
and  supplies  forwarded  to  their  armies;  but  in  the  course  of  a 
year,  the  zeal  of  the  Southern  ladies  cooled,  and  they  contented 
themselves  with  waving  their  handkerchiefs  to  the  soldiers,  instead 
of  providing  for  their  wants;  and  thenceforward,  to  the  end  of 
the  war,  though  there  were  no  rebels  so  bitter  and  hearty  in  their 
expressions  of  hostility  to  the  North,  as  the  great  mass  of  Southern 
women,  it  was  a  matter  of  constant  complaint  in  the  Rebel  armies, 
that  their  women  did  nothing  for  their  comfort.  The  complaint 
was  doubtless  exaggerated,  for  in  their  hospitals  there  were  some 
women  of  high  station  who  did  minister  to  the  wounded,  but 
after  the  first  year,  the  gifts  and  sacrifices  of  Southern  women  to 
their  army  and  hospitals,  were  not  the  hundredth,  hardly  the 
thousandth  part  of  those  of  the  women  of  the  North  to  their 
countrymen. 

A  still  more  remarkable  result  of  this  wide-spread  movement 
among  the  women  of  the  North,  was  its  eifect  upon  the  sex  them 
selves.  Fifty  years  of  peace  had  made  us,  if  not  "a  nation  of 
shop-keepers,"  at  least  a  people  given  to  value  too  highly,  the 
pomp  and  show  of  material  wealth,  and  our  women  were  as  a 
class,  the  younger  women  especially,  devoting  to  frivolous  pur 
suits,  society,  gaiety  and  display,  the  gifts  wherewith  God  had 


endowed  them  most  bountifully.  The  war,  and  the  benevolence 
and  patriotism  which  it  evoked,  changed  all  this.  The  gay  and 
thoughtless  belle,  the  accomplished  and  beautiful  leader  of  society, 
awoke  at  once  to  a  new  life.  The  soul  of  whose  existence  she 
had  been  almost  as  unconscious  as  Fouque's  Undine,  began  to 
assert  its  powers,  and  the  gay  and  fashionable  woman,  no  longer 
ennuye'd  by  the  emptiness  and  frivolity  of  life,  found  her  thoughts 
and  hands  alike  fully  occupied,  and  rose  into  a  sphere  of  life  and 
action,  of  which,  a  month  before,  she  would  have  considered  her 
self  incapable. 

Saratoga  and  Newport,  and  the  other  haunts  of  fashion  were 
not  indeed  deserted,  but  the  visitors  there  were  mostly  new  faces, 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  those  who  had  grown  rich  through 
the  contracts  and  vicissitudes  of  the  war,  while  their  old  habitue's 
were  toiling  amid  the  summer's  heat  to  provide  supplies  for  the 
hospitals,  superintending  sanitary  fairs,  or  watching  and  aiding 
the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  the  hospitals,  or  at  the  front  of 
the  army.  In  these  labors  of  love,  many  a  fair  face  grew  pale, 
many  a  light  dancing  step  became  slow  and  feeble,  and  ever  and 
anon  the  light  went  out  of  eyes,  that  but  a  little  while  before  had 
flashed  and  glowed  in  conscious  beauty  and  pride.  But  though 
the  cheeks  might  grow  pale,  the  step  feeble,  and  the  eyes  dim, 
there  was  a  holier  and  more  transcendent  beauty  about  them  than 
in  their  gayest  hours.  "We  looked  daily,"  says  one  who  was 
herself  a  participant  in  this  blessed  work,  in  speaking  of  one  who, 
after  years  of  self-sacrificing  devotion,  at  last  laid  down  her  young 
life  in  patriotic  toil,  "we  looked  daily  to  see  the  halo  surround 
her  head,  for  it  seemed  as  if  God  would  not  suffer  so  pure  and 
saintly  a  soul  to  walk  the  earth  without  a  visible  manifestation 
of  his  love  for  her."  Work  so  ennobling,  not  only  elevated  and 
etherealized  the  mind  and  soul,  but  it  glorified  the  body,  and 
many  times  it  shed  a  glory  and  beauty  over  the  plainest  faces, 
somewhat  akin  to  that  which  transfigured  the  Jewish  lawgiver, 
when  he  came  down  from  the  Mount.  But  it  has  done  more 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER.  93 

than  this.  The  soul  once  ennobled  by  participation  in  a  great 
and  glorious  work,  can  never  again  be  satisfied  to  come  down  to 
the  heartlessness,  the  frivolities,  the  petty  jealousies,  and  little 
nesses  of  a  life  of  fashion.  Its  aspirations  and  sympathies  lie 
otherwheres,  and  it  must  seek  in  some  sphere  of  humanitarian 
activity  or  Christian  usefulness,  for  work  that  will  gratify  its 
longings. 

How  pitiful  and  mean  must  the  brightest  of  earth's  gay  assem 
blages  appear,  to  her  who,  day  after  day,  has  held  converse  with 
the  souls  of  the  departing,  as  they  plumed  their  wings  for  the 
flight  heavenward,  and  accompanying  them  in  their  upward 
journey  so  far  as  mortals  may,  has  been  privileged  with  some 
glimpse  through  the  opening  gates  of  pearl,  into  the  golden 
streets  of  the  city  of  our  God ! 

With  such  experiences,  and  a  discipline  so  purifying  and  en 
nobling,  we  can  but  anticipate  a  still  higher  and  holier  future,  for 
the  women  of  our  time.  To  them,  we  must  look  for  the  advance 
ment  of  all  noble  and  philanthropic  enterprises;  the  lifting  vagrant 
and  wayward  childhood  from  the  paths  of  ruin ;  the  universal  dif 
fusion  of  education  and  culture;  the  succor  and  elevation  of  the 
poor,  the  weak,  and  the  down-trodden ;  the  rescue  and  reformation 
of  the  fallen  sisterhood;  the  improvement  of  hospitals  and  the  care 
of  the  sick;  the  reclamation  of  prisoners,  especially  in  female 
prisons ;  and  in  general,  the  genial  ministrations  of  refined  and 
cultured  womanhood,  wherever  these  ministrations  can  bring 
calmness,  peace  and  comfort.  Wherever  there  is  sorrow,  suffering, 
or  sin,  in  our  own  or  in  other  lands,  these  heaven-appointed 
Sisters  of  Charity  will  find  their  mission  and  their  work. 

Glorious  indeed  will  be  the  results  of  such  labors  of  love  and 
Christian  charity.  Society  will  be  purified  and  elevated;  giant 
evils  which  have  so  long  thwarted  human  progress,  overthrown ; 
the  strongholds  of  sin,  captured  and  destroyed  by  the  might  of 
truth,  and  the  "new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness/'  so 


94 

long  foretold  by  patriarch,  prophet,  and  apostle,  become  a  welcome 
and  enduring  reality. 

And  they  who  have  wrought  this  good  work,  as,  one  after 
another,  they  lay  down  the  garments  of  their  earthly  toil  to  assume 
the  glistening  robes  of  the  angels,  shall  find,  as  did  Enoch  of  old, 
that  those  who  walk  with  God,  shall  be  spared  the  agonies  of 
death  and  translated  peacefully  and  joyfully  to  the  mansions  of 
their  heavenly  home,  while  waiting  choirs  of  the  blessed  ones 
shall  hail  their  advent  to  the  transcendent  glories  of  the  world 
above. 


PART  I. 


SUPERINTENDENT  OF  NURSES. 


DOROTHEA    L.    DIX. 


MONG  all  the  women  who  devoted  themselves  with 
untiring  energy,  and  gave  talents  of  the  highest  order 
to  the  work  of  caring  for  our  soldiers  during  the  war, 
the  name  of  Dorothea  L.  Dix  will  always  take  the  first 
rank,  and  history  will  undoubtedly  preserve  it  long  after  all 
others  have  sunk  into  oblivion.  This  her  extraordinary  and  ex 
ceptional  official  position  will  secure.  Others  have  doubtless 
done  as  excellent  a  work,  and  earned  a  praise  equal  to  her  own, 
but  her  relations  to  the  government  will  insure  her  historical 
mention  and  remembrance,  while  none  will  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
her  patriotism,  or  the  faithfulness  of  her  devotion. 

Dorothea  L.  Dix  is  a  native  of  Worcester,  Mass.  Her  father 
was  a  physician,  who  died  while  she  was  as  yet  young,  leaving 
her  almost  without  pecuniary  resources. 

Soon  after  this  event,  she  proceeded  to  Boston,  where  she 
opened  a  select  school  for  young  ladies,  from  the  income  of  which 
she  was  enabled  to  draw  a  comfortable  support. 

One  day  during  her  residence  in  Boston,  while  passing  along  a 
street,  she  accidentally  overheard  two  gentlemen,  who  were  walking 
before  her,  conversing  about  the  state  prison  at  Charlestown,  and 
expressing  their  sorrow  at  the  neglected  condition  of  the  convicts. 
They  were  undoubtedly  of  that  class  of  philanthropists  who  believe 
that  no  man,  however  vile,  is  all  bad,  but,  though  sunk  into  the 
lowest  depths  of  vice,  has  yet  in  his  soul  some  white  spot  which 

13  97 


98  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  taint  has  not  reached,  but  which  some  kind  hand  may  reach, 
and  some  kind  heart  may  touch. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  their  remarks  found  an  answering  chord  in 
the  heart  of  Miss  Dix.  She  was  powerfully  affected  and  im 
pressed,  so  much  so,  that  she  obtained  no  rest  until  she  had  her 
self  visited  the  prison,  and  learned  that  in  what  she  had  heard 
there  was  no  exaggeration.  She  found  great  suffering,  and  great 
need  of  reform. 

Energetic  of  character,  and  kindly  of  heart,  she  at  once  lent 
herself  to  the  work  of  elevating  and  instructing  the  degraded  and 
suffering  classes  she  found  there,  and  becoming  deeply  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  these  unfortunates,  she  continued  to  employ  her 
self  in  labors  pertaining  to  this  field  of  reform,  until  the  year 
1834. 

At  that  time  her  health  becoming  greatly  impaired,  she  gave 
up  her  school  and  embarked  for  Europe.  Shortly  before  this 
period,  she  had  inherited  from  a  relative  sufficient  property  to 
render  her  independent  of  daily  exertion  for  support,  and  to 
enable  her  to  carry  out  any  plans  of  charitable  work  which  she 
should  form.  Like  all  persons  firmly  fixed  in  an  idea  which 
commends  itself  alike  to  the  judgment  and  the  impulses,  she  was 
very  tenacious  of  her  opinions  relating  to  it,  and  impatient  of 
opposition.  It  is  said  that  from  this  cause  she  did  not  always 
meet  the  respect  and  attention  which  the  important  objects  to 
which  she  was  devoting  her  life  would  seem  to  merit.  That  she 
found  friends  and  helpers  however  at  home  and  abroad,  is  un 
doubtedly  true. 

She  remained  abroad  until  the  year  1837,  when  returning  to 
her  native  country  she  devoted  herself  to  the  investigation  of  the 
condition  of  paupers,  lunatics  and  prisoners.  In  this  work  she 
was  warmly  aided  and  encouraged  by  her  friend  and  pastor  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Channing,  of  whose  children  she  had  been  governess, 
as  well  as  by  many  other  persons  whose  hearts  beat  a  chord 
responsive  to  that  long  since  awakened  in  her  own. 


DOROTHEA    L.    DIX.  99 

Since  1841  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  late  war.  Miss  Dix 
devoted  herself  to  the  great  work  which  she  accepted  as  the  spe 
cial  mission  of  her  life.  In  pursuance  of  it,  she,  during  that 
time,  is  said  to  have  visited  every  State  of  the  Union  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  examining  prisons,  poor-houses,  lunatic  asy 
lums,  and  endeavoring  to  persuade  legislatures  and  influential 
individuals  to  take  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and 
wretched. 

Her  exertions  contributed  greatly  to  the  foundation  of  State 
lunatic  asylums  in  Rhode  Island,  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Louisiana  and  North  Carolina.  She  presented 
a  memorial  to  Congress  during  the  Session  of  1848—9,  asking  an 
appropriation  of  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  public  lands 
to  endow  hospitals  for  the  indigent  insane. 

This  measure  failed,  but,  not  discouraged,  she  renewed  the 
appeal  in  1850  asking  for  ten  millions  of  acres.  The  Committee 
of  the  House  to  whom  the  memorial  was  referred,  made  a  favor 
able  report,  and  a  bill  such  as  she  asked  for  passed  the  House, 
but  failed  in  the  Senate  for  want  of  time.  In  April,  1854,  how 
ever,  her  unwearied  exertions  were  rewarded  by  the  passage  of  a 
bill  by  both  houses,  appropriating  ten  millions  of  acres  to  the 
several  States  for  the  relief  of  the  indigent  insane.  But  this  bill 
was  vetoed  by  President  Pierce,  chiefly  on  the  ground  that  the 
General  Government  had  no  constitutional  power  to  make  such 
appropriations. 

Miss  Dix  was  thus  unexpectedly  checked  and  deeply  disap 
pointed  in  the  immediate  accomplishment  of  this  branch  of  the 
great  w^ork  of  benevolence  to  which  she  had  more  particularly 
devoted  herself. 

From  that  time  she  seems  to  have  given  herself,  with  added 
zeal,  to  her  labors  for  the  insane.  This  class  so  helpless,  and  so 
innocently  suffering,  seem  to  have  always  been,  and  more  parti 
cularly  during  the  later  years  of  her  work,  peculiarly  the  object 
of  her  sympathies  and  labors.  In  the  prosecution  of  these  labors 


100  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

she  made  another  voyage  to  Europe  in  1858  or  '59,  and  continued 
to  pursue  them  with  indefatigable  zeal  and  devotion. 

The  labors  of  Miss  Dix  for  the  insane  were  continued  without 
intermission  until  the  occurrence  of  those  startling  events  which 
at  once  turned  into  other  and  new  channels  nearly  all  the  indus 
tries  and  philanthropies  of  our  nation.  VWith  many  a  premonition, 
and  many  a  muttering  of  the  coining  storm,  unheeded,  our  people, 
inured  to  peace,  continued  unappalled  in  their  quiet  pursuits. 
But  while  the  actual  commencement  of  active  hostilities  called 
thousands  of  men  to  arms,  from  the  monotony  of  mechanical, 
agricultural  and  commercial  pursuits  and  the  professions,  it 
changed  as  well  the  thoughts  and  avocations  of  those  who  were 
not  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  military.  * 

And  not  to  men  alone  did  these  changes  come.  Not  they  alone 
were  filled  with  a  new  fire  of  patriotism,  and  a  quickened  devo 
tion  to  the  interests  of  our  nation.  Scarcely  had  the  ear  ceased 
thrilling  with  the  tidings  that  our  country  was  indeed  the  theatre 
of  civil  war,  when  women  as  well  as  men  began  to  inquire  if  there 
were  not  for  them  some  part  to  be  played  in  this  great  drama. 

Almost,  if  not  quite  the  first  among  these  was  Miss  Dix.  Self- 
reliant,  accustomed  to  rapid  and  independent  action,  conscious  of 
her  ability  for  usefulness,  with  her  to  resolve  was  to  act.  Scarcely 
had  the  first  regiments  gone  forward  to  the  defense  of  our  menaced 
capital,  when  she  followed,  full  of  a  patriotic  desire  to  offer  to  her 
country  whatever  service  a  woman  could  perform  in  this  hour  of 
its  need,  and  determined  that  it  should  be  given. 

She  passed  through  Baltimore  shortly  after  that  fair  city  had 
covered  itself  with  the  indelible  disgrace  of  the  16th  of  April, 
1861,  and  on  her  arrival  at  Washington,  the  first  labor  she  offered 
on  her  country's  altar,  was  the  nursing  of  some  wounded  soldiers, 
victims  of  the  Baltimore  mob.  Thus  was  she  earliest  in  the 
field. 

Washington  became  a  great  camp.  Every  one  was  willing, 
nay  anxious,  to  be  useful  and  employed.  jJMilitary  hospitals  were 


DOROTHEA    L.    DIX.  101 

hastily  organized.  There  were  many  sick,  but  few  skilful  nurses. 
The  opening  of  the  rebellion  had  not  found  the  government,  nor 
the  loyal  people  prepared  for  it.  All  was  confusion,  want  of  dis 
cipline,  and  disorder.  Organizing  minds,  persons  of  executive 
ability,  leaders,  were  wanted.  |\ 

The  services  of  women  could  be  made  available  in  the  hospitals. 
They  were  needed  as  nurses,  but  it  was  equally  necessary  that  some 
one  should  decide  upon  their  qualifications  for  the  task,  and  direct 
their  efforts. 

Miss  Dix  was  present  in  Washington.  Her  ability,  long  expe 
rience  in  public  institutions  and  high  character  were  well  known. 
Scores  of  persons  of  influence,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  could 
vouch  for  her,  and  she  had  already  offered  her  services  to  the 
authorities  for  any  work  in  which  they  could  be  made  available. 

Her  selection  for  the  important  post  of  Superintendent  of 
Female  Nurses,  by  Secretary  Cameron,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
War  Department,  on  the  10th  of  June,  1861,  commanded  univer 
sal  approbation. 

This  at  once  opened  for  her  a  wide  and  most  important  field  of 
duty  and  labor.  Except  hospital  matrons,*  all  women  regularly 
employed  in  the  hospitals,  and  entitled  to  pay  from  the  Govern 
ment,  were  appointed  by  her.  An  examination  of  the  qualifica 
tions  of  each  applicant  was  made.  A  woman  must  be  mature  in 
years,  plain  almost  to  homeliness  in  dress,  and  by  no  means  libe 
rally  endowed  with  personal  attractions,  if  she  hoped  to  meet  the 
approval  of  Miss  Dix.  Good  health  and  an  unexceptionable  moral 
character  were  always  insisted  on.  As  the  war  progressed,  the 
applications  were  numerous,  and  the  need  of  this  kind  of  service 
great,  but  the  rigid  scrutiny  first  adopted  by  Miss  Dix  continued, 
and  many  were  rejected  who  did  not  in  all  respects  possess  the 
qualifications  which  she  had  fixed  as  her  standard.  Some  of 
these  women,  who  in  other  branches  of  the  service,  and  under 


*  In  manj  instances  she  appointed  these  also. 


102  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

other  ati;  pices,  became  eminently  useful,  were  rejected  on  account 
of  their  youth ;  while  some,  alas !  were  received,  who  afterwards 
proved  themselves  quite  unfit  for  the  position,  and  a  disgrace  to 
their  sex. 

But  in  these  matters  no  blame  can  attach  to  Miss  Dix.  In  the 
first  instance  she  acted  no  doubt  from  the  dictates  of  a  sound  and 
mature  judgment;  and  in  the  last  was  often  deceived  by  false  tes 
timonials,  by  a  specious  appearance,  or  by  applicants  who,  inno 
cent  at  the  time,  were  not  proof  against  the  temptations  and 
allurements  of  a  position  which  all  must  admit  to  be  peculiarly 
exposed  and  unsafe. 

Besides  the  appointment  of  nurses  the  position  of  Miss  Dix 
imposed  upon  her  numerous  and  onerous  duties.  She  visited 
hospitals,  far  and  near,  inquiring  into  the  wants  of  their  occu 
pants,  in  all  cases  where  possible,  supplementing  the  Government 
stores  by  those  with  which  she  was  always  supplied  by  private 
benevolence,  or  from  public  sources;  she  adjusted  disputes,  and 
settled  difficulties  in  which  her  nurses  were  concerned;  and  in 
every  way  showed  her  true  and  untiring  devotion  to  her  country, 
and  its  suffering  defenders.  She  undertook  long  journeys  by 
land  and  by  water,  and  seemed  ubiquitous,  for  she  was  seldom 
missed  from  her  office  in  Washington,  yet  was  often  seen  else 
where,  and  always  bent  upon  the  same  fixed  and  earnest  purpose. 
We  cannot,  perhaps,  better  describe  the  personal  appearance  of 
Miss  Dix,  and  give  an  idea  of  her  varied  duties  and  many  sacri 
fices,  than  by  transcribing  the  following  extract  from  the  printed 
correspondence  of  a  lady,  herself  an  active  and  most  efficient 
laborer  in  the  same  general  field  of  effort,  and  holding  an  import 
ant  position  in  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission. 

"It  was  Sunday  morning  when  we  arrived  in  Washington, 
and  as  the  Sanitary  Commission  held  no  meeting  that  day,  we 
decided  after  breakfast  to  pay  a  visit  to  Miss  Dix. 

"We  fortunately  found  the  good  lady  at  home,  but  just  ready 
to  start  for  the  hospitals.  She  is  slight  and  delicate  looking,  and 


DOROTHEA    L.  DIX.  103 

seems  physically  inadequate  to  the  work  she  is  engaged  in.  In 
her  youth  she  must  have  possessed  considerable  beauty,  and  she 
is  still  very  comely,  with  a  soft  and  musical  voice,  graceful  figure, 
and  very  winning  manners.  Secretary  Cameron  vested  her  with 
sole  power  to  appoint  female  nurses  in  the  hospitals.  Secretary 
Stanton,  on  succeeding  him  ratified  the  appointment,  and  she  has 
installed  several  hundreds  of  nurses  in  this  noble  work — all  of 
them  Protestants,  and  middle-aged.  Miss  Dix's  whole  soul  is  in 
this  work.  She  rents  two  large  houses,  which  are  depots  for 
sanitary  supplies  sent  to  her  care,  and  houses  of  rest  and  refresh 
ment  for  nurses  and  convalescent  soldiers,  employs  two  secretaries, 
owns  ambulances  and  keeps  them  busily  employed,  prints  and 
distributes  circulars,  goes  hither  and  thither  from  one  remote 
point  to  another  in  her  visitations  of  hospitals, — and  pays  all  the 
expenses  incurred  from  her  private  purse.  Her  fortune,  time  and 
strength  are  laid  on  the  altar  of  the  country  in  this  hour  of  trial. 
"^^Unfortunately,  many  of  the  surgeons  in  the  hospitals  do  not 
work  harmoniously  with  Miss  Dix.  They  are  jealous  of  her 
power,  impatient  of  her  authority,  find  fault  with  her  nurses,  and 
accuse  her  of  being  arbitrary,  opinionated,  severe  and  caprici 
Many  to  rid  themselves  of  her  entirely,  have  obtained  permission 
of  Surgeon-General  Hammond  to  employ  Sisters  of  Charity  in 
their  hospitals,  a  proceeding  not  to  Miss  Dix's  liking.  Knowing 
by  observation  that  many  of  the  surgeons  are  wholly  unfit  for 
their  office,  that  too  often  they  fail  to  bring  skill,  morality,  or 
humanity  to  their  work,  we  could  easily  understand  how  this 
single-hearted,  devoted,  tireless  friend  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldier  would  come  in  collision  with  these  laggards,  and  we  liked 
her  none  the  less  for  it." 

Though  Miss  Dix  received  no  salary,  devoting  to  the  work  her 
time  and  labors  without  remuneration,  a  large  amount  of  supplies 
were  placed  in  her  hands,  both  by  the  Government  and  from 
private  sources,  which  she  was  always  ready  to  dispense  with 
judgment  and  caution,  it  is  true,  but  with  a  pleasant  earnestness 


104  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

alike  grateful  to  the  recipient  of  the  kindness,  or  to  the  agent 
who  acted  in  her  stead  in  this  work  of  mercy. 
*Sf  t  was  perhaps  unfortunate  for  Miss  Dix  that  at  the  time  when 
she  received  her  appointment  it  was  so  unprecedented,  and  the 
entire  service  was  still  in  such  a  chaotic  state,  that  it  was  simply 
impossible  to  define  her  duties  or  her  authority.  |  As,  therefore, 
110  plan  of  action  or  rules  were  adopted,  she  was  forced  to  abide 
exclusively  by  her  own  ideas  of  need  and  authority.  In  a  letter 
to  the  writer,  from  an  official  source,  her  position  and  the  changes 
that  became  necessary  are  thus  explained: 

"The  appointment  of  nurses  was  regulated  by  her  ideas  of 
their  prospective  usefulness,  good  moral  character  being  an  abso 
lute  prerequisite.  This  absence  of  system,  and  independence  of 
action,  worked  so  very  unsatisfactorily,  that  in  October,  1863,  a 
General  Order  was  issued  placing  the  assignment,  or  employment 
of  female  nurses,  exclusively  under  control  of  Medical  Officers, 
and  limiting  the  superintendency  to  a  e  certificate  of  approval/ 
without  which  no  woman  nurse  could  be  employed,  except  by 
order  of  the  Surgeon-General.  This  materially  reduced  the  num 
ber  of  appointments,  secured  the  muster  and  pay  of  those  in 
service,  and  established  discipline  and  order." 

The  following  is  the  General  Order  above  alluded  to. 

GENERAL   ORDERS,  No.  351. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFFICE, 

WASHINGTON,  October  29,  1863. 

The  employment  of  women  nurses  in  the  United  States  General  Hospitals 
will  in  future  be  strictly  governed  by  the  following  rules : 

1.  Persons  approved  by  Miss  Dix,  or  her  authorized  agents,  will  receive  from 
her,  or  them,  "certificates   of  approval,"   which   must  be  countersigned   by 
Medical  Directors  upon  their  assignment  to  duty  as  nurses  within  their  Depart 
ments. 

2.  Assignments  of  "women  nurses"  to  duty  in  General  Hospitals  will  only 
be  made  upon  application  by  the  Surgeons  in  charge,  through  Medical  Direc 
tors,  to  Miss  Dix  or  her  agents,  for  the  number  they  require,  not  exceeding  one 
to  every  thirty  beds. 


DOROTHEA    L.  DIX.  105 

3.  No   females,    except   Hospital    Matrons,   will    be   employed   in    General 
Hospitals,  or,  after  December  31,  1S63,  born  upon  the  Muster  and  Pay  Rolls, 
without  such  certificates  of  approval  and  regular  assignment,  unless  specially 
appointed  by  the  Surgeon-General. 

4.  Women  nurses,  while  on  duty  in  General  Hospitals,  are  under  the  exclu 
sive  control  of  the  senior  medical  officer,  who  will  direct  their  several  duties, 
and  may  be  discharged  by  him  when  considered  supernumerary,  or  for  incora- 
petency,  insubordination,  or  violation  of  his  orders.     Such  discharge,  with  the 
reasons  therefor,  being  endorsed  upon  the  certificate,  will  be  at  once  returned 
to  Miss  Dix. 

BY  ORDER  OF  THE  SECRETAHY  OF  WAR : 

E.    D.    TOWNSEND, 

Assistant  Adjutant-  General. 
OFFICIAL,  : 

By  this  Order  the  authority  of  Miss  Dix  was  better  defined,  but 
she  continued  to  labor  under  the  same  difficulty  which  had  from 
the  first  clogged  her  efforts.  Authority  had  been  bestowed  upon 
her,  but  not  the  power  to  enforce  obedience.  There  was  no  pen 
alty  for  disobedience,  and  persons  disaffected,  forgetful,  or  idle, 
might  refuse  or  neglect  to  obey  with  impunity.  It  will  at  once 
be  seen  that  this  fact  must  have  resulted  disastrously  upon  her 
efforts.  She  doubtless  had  enemies  (as  who  has  not)?  and  some 
were  jealous  of  the  power  and  prominence  of  her  position,  while 
many  might  even  feel  unwilling,  under  any  circumstances,  to  ac 
knowledge,  and  yield  to  the  authority  of  a  woman.  Added  to 
this  she  had,  in  some  cases,  and  probably  without  any  fault  on 
her  part,  failed  to  secure  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  sur 
geons  in  charge  of  hospitals.  In  these  facts  lay  the  sources  of 
trials,  discouragements,  and  difficulties,  all  to  be  met,  struggled 
with,  and,  if  possible,  triumphed  over  by  a  woman,  standing 
quite  alone  in  a  most  responsible,  laborious,  and  exceptional 
position.  It  indeed  seems  most  wonderful — almost  miraculous — 
that  under  such  circumstances,  such  a  vast  amount  of  good  was 
accomplished.  Had  she  not  accomplished  half  so  much,  she  still 
would  richly  have  deserved  that  highest  of  plaudits — Well  done 

good  and  faithful  servant! 
u 


106 

Miss  Dix  has  one  remarkable  peculiarity — undoubtedly  re 
markable  in  one  of  her  sex  which  is  said,  and  with  truth — to 
possess  great  approbativeness.  She  does  not  apparently  desire 
fame,  she  does  not  enjoy  being  talked  about,  even  in  praise.  The 
approval  of  her  own  conscience,  the  consciousness  of  performing 
an  unique  and  useful  work,  seems  quite  to  suffice  her.  Few 
women  are  so  self-reliant,  self-sustained,  self-centered.  And  in 
saying  this  we  but  echo  the  sentiments,  if  not  the  words,  of  an 
eminent  divine  who,  like  herself,  was  during  the  whole  war  de 
voted  to  a  work  similar  in  its  purpose,  and  alike  responsible  and 
arduous. 

"  She  (Miss  Dix)  is  a  lady  who  likes  to  do  things  and  not  have 
them  talked  about.  She  is  freer  from  the  love  of  public  reputa 
tion  than  any  woman  I  know.  Then  her  plans  are  so  strictly 
her  own,  and  always  so  wholly  controlled  by  her  own  individual 
genius  and  power,  that  they  cannot  well  be  participated  in  by 
others,  and  not  much  understood. 

"  Miss  Dix,  I  suspect,  was  as  early  in,  as  long  employed,  and 
as  self-sacrificing  as  any  woman  who  offered  her  services  to  the 
country.  She  gave  herself — body,  soul  and  substance — to  the 
good  work.  I  wish  we  had  any  record  of  her  work,  but  we  have 
not. 

"  I  should  not  dare  to  speak  for  her — about  her  work — except 
to  say  that  it  was  extended,  patient  and  persistent  beyond  any 
thing  I  know  of,  dependent  on  a  single-handed  effort." 

All  the  testimony  goes  to  show  that  Miss  Dix  is  a  woman  en 
dowed  with  warm  feelings  and  great  kindness  of  heart.  It  is 
only  those  who  do  not  know  her,  or  who  have  only  met  her  in 
the  conflict  of  opposing  wills,  who  pronounce  her,  as  some  have 
done,  a  cold  and  heartless  egotist.  Opinionated  she  may  be, 
because  convinced  of  the  general  soundness  of  her  ideas,  and  infal 
libility  of  her  judgment.  If  the  success  of  great  designs,  under 
taken  and  carried  through  single-handed,  furnish  warrant  for  such 
conviction,  she  has  an  undoubted  right  to  hold  it. 


DOROTHEA    L.  DIX.  107 

Her  nature  is  large  and  generous,  yet  with  no  room  for  narrow 
grudges,  or  mean  reservations.  As  a  proof  of  this,  her  stores 
were  as  readily  dispensed  for  the  use  of  a  hospital  in  which  the 
surgeon  refused  and  rejected  her  nurses,  as  for  those  who  employed 
them. 

She  had  the  kindest  care  and  oversight  over  the  women  she 
had  commissioned.  She  wished  them  to  embrace  every  opportu 
nity  for  the  rest  and  refreshment  rendered  necessary  by  their 
arduous  labors.  A  home  for  them  was  established  by  her  in 
Washington,  which  at  all  times  opened  its  doors  for  their  recep 
tion,  and  where  she  wished  them  to  enjoy  that  perfect  quiet  and 
freedom  from  care,  during  their  occasional  sojourns,  which  were 
the  best  remedies  for  their  weariness  and  exhaustion  of  body  and 
soul. 

In  her  more  youthful  days  Miss  Dix  devoted  herself  consider 
ably  to  literary  pursuits.  She  has  published  several  works  ano 
nymously — the  first  of  which — "  The  Garland  of  Flora,"  was 
published  in  Boston  in  1829.  This  was  succeeded  by  a  number 
of  books  for  children,  among  which  were  "  Conversations  about 
Common  Things,"  "Alice  and  Ruth,"  and  "Evening  Hours." 
She  has  also  published  a  variety  of  tracts  for  prisoners,  and  has 
written  many  memorials  to  legislative  bodies  on  the  subject  of  the 
foundation  and  conducting  of  Lunatic  Asylums. 

Miss  Dix  is  gifted  with  a  singularly  gentle  and  persuasive 
voice,  and  her  manners  are  said  to  exert  a  remarkably  controlling 
influence  over  the  fiercest  maniacs. 

She  is  exceedingly  quiet  and  retiring  in  her  deportment,  delicate 
and  refined  in  manner,  with  great  sweetness  of  expression.  She 
is  far  from  realizing  the  popular  idea  of  the  strong-minded  wo 
man — loud,  boisterous  and  uncouth,  claiming  as  a  right,  what 
might,  perhaps,  be  more  readily  obtained  as  a  courteous  conces 
sion.  On  the  contrary,  her  successes  with  legislatures  and  indi 
viduals,  are  obtained  by  the  mildest  efforts,  which  yet  lack  nothing 
of  persistence ;  and  few  persons  beholding  this  delicate  and  retir- 


108 

ing  woman  would  imagine  they  saw  in  her  the  champion  of  the 
oppressed  and  suffering  classes. 

Miss  Dix  regards  her  army  work  but  as  an  episode  in  her 
career.  She  did  what  she  could,  and  with  her  devotion  of  self 
and  high  patriotism  she  would  have  done  no  less.  She  pursued 
her  labors  to  the  end,  and  her  position  was  not  resigned  until 
many  months  after  the  close  of  the  war.  In  fact,  she  tarried  in 
Washington  to  finish  many  an  uncompleted  task,  for  some  time 
after  her  office  had  been  abolished. 

When  all  was  done  she  returned  at  once  to  that  which  she 
considers  her  life's  work,  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the 
insane. 

A  large  portion  of  the  winter  of  1865-6  was  devoted  to  an 
attempt  to  induce  the  Legislature  of  New  York  to  make  better 
provision  for  the  insane  of  that  State,  and  to  procure,  or  erect  for 
them,  several  asylums  of  small  size  where  a  limited  number  under 
the  care  of  experienced  physicians,  might  enjoy  greater  facilities 
for  a  cure,  and  a  better  prospect  of  a  return  to  the  pursuits  and 
pleasures  of  life. 

Miss  Dix  now  resides  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  where  she  has 
since  the  war  fixed  her  abode,  travelling  thence  to  the  various 
scenes  of  her  labors.  Wherever  she  may  be,  and  however 
engaged,  we  may  be  assured  that  her  object  is  the  good  of  some 
portion  of  the  race,  and  is  worthy  of  the  prayers  and  blessings  of 
all  who  love  humanity  and  seek  the  promotion  of  its  best  inte 
rests.  And  to  the  close  of  her  long  and  useful  life,  the  thanks, 
the  heartfelt  gratitude  of  every  citizen  of  our  common  country  so 
deeply  indebted  to  her,  and  to  the  many  devoted  and  self-sacri 
ficing  women  whose  efforts  she  directed,  must  as  assuredly  follow 
her.  She  belongs  now  to  History,  and  America  may  proudly 
claim  her  daughter. 


PART  II. 


LADIES  WHO  MINISTERED  TO  THE  SICK  AND  WOUNDED  IN  CAMP, 
FIELD  AND   GENERAL  HOSPITALS. 


CLARA    HARLOWE    BARTON.* 


F  those  whom  the  first  blast  of  the  war  trump  roused 
and  called  to  lives  of  patriotic  devotion  and  philan 
thropic  endeavor,  some  were  led  instinctively  to  asso 
ciated  labor,  and  found  their  zeal  inflamed,  their 
patriotic  efforts  cheered  and  encouraged  by  communion  with  those 
who  were  like-minded.  To  these  the  organizations  of  the  Sol 
diers7  Aid  Societies  and  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Commissions 
were  a  necessity ;  they  provided  a  place  and  way  for  the  exercise 
and  development  of  those  capacities  for  noble  and  heroic  endeavor, 
and  generous  self-sacrifice,  so  gloriously  manifested  by  many  of 
our  American  women,  and  which  it  has  given  us  so  much  pleasure 
to  record  in  these  pages. 

But  there  were  others  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  greater 
independence  of  character  and  higher  executive  powers,  who  while 
not  less  modest  and  retiring  in  disposition  than  their  sisters,  yet 
preferred  to  mark  out  their  own  career,  and  pursue  a  compara 
tively  independent  course.  They  worked  harmoniously  with  the 
various  sanitary  and  other  organizations  when  brought  into  con 
tact  with  them,  but  their  work  was  essentially  distinct  from  them, 
and  was  pursued  without  interfering  in  any  way  with  that  of 
others. 


*  In  the  preparation  of  this  sketch  of  Miss  Barton,  we  have  availed  ourselves, 
as  far  as  practicable,  of  a  paper  prepared  for  us  by  a  clerical  friend  of  the  lady, 
who  had  known  her  from  childhood.  The  passages  from  this  paper  are  indi 
cated  by  quotation  marks. 

Ill 


112  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

To  this  latter  class  pre-eminently  belongs  Miss  Clara  Harlowe 
Barton. 

Quiet,  modest,  and  unassuming  in  manner  and  appearance, 
there  is  beneath  this  quiet  exterior  an  intense  energy,  a  compre 
hensive  intellect,  a  resolute  will,  and  an  executive  force,  which  is 
found  in  few  of  the  stronger  sex,  and  which  mingled  with  the 
tenderness  and  grace  of  refined  womanhood  eminently  qualifies 
her  to  become  an  independent  power. 

Miss  Barton  was  born  in  North  Oxford,  Worcester  County, 
Massachusetts.  Her  father,  Stephen  Barton,  Sr.,  was  a  man 
highly  esteemed  in  the  community  in  which  he  dwelt,  and  by 
which  his  worth  was  most  thoroughly  known.  In  early  youth 
he  had  served  as  a  soldier  in  the  West  under  General  Wayne, 
the  "Mad  Anthony"  of  the  early  days  of  the  Kepublic,  and  his 
boyish  eyes  had  witnessed  the  evacuation  of  Detroit  by  the  British 
in  1796.  "His  military  training  may  have  contributed  to  the 
sterling  uprightness,  the  inflexible  will,  and  the  devotion  to  law 
and  order  and  rightful  authority  for  which  he  was  distinguished." 
The  little  Clara  was  the  youngest  by  several  years  in  a  family  of 
two  brothers  and  three  sisters.  She  was  early  taught  that  pri 
meval  benediction,  miscalled  a  curse,  which  requires  mankind  to 
earn  their  bread.  Besides  domestic  duties  and  a  very  thorough 
public  school  training  she  learned  the  general  rules  of  business 
by  acting  as  clerk  and  book-keeper  for  her  eldest  brother.  Next 
she.  betook  herself  to  the  district  school,  the  usual  stepping-stone 
for  all  aspiring  men  and  women  in  New  England.  She  taught 
for  several  years,  commencing  when  very  young,  in  various  places 
in  Massachusetts  and  New  Jersey.  The  large  circle  of  friends 
thus  formed  was  not  without  its  influence  in  determining  her 
military  career.  So  many  of  her  pupils  volunteered  in  the  first 
years  of  the  war  that  at  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run  she  found 
seven  of  them,  each  of  whom  had  lost  an  arm  or  a  leg. 

"One  example  will  show  her  character  as  a  teacher.  She  went 
to  Bordentown,  N.  J.,  in  1853,  where  there  was  not,  and  never 


CLARA   HARLOWE    BARTON.  113 

had  been,  a  public  school.  Three  or  four  unsuccessful  attempts 
had  been  made,  and  the  idea  had  been  abandoned  as  not  adapted 
to  that  latitude.  The  brightest  boys  in  the  town  ran  untaught  in 
the  streets.  She  offered  to  teach  a  free  school  for  three  months  at 
her  own  expense,  to  convince  the  citizens  that  it  could  be  done ; 
and  she  was  laughed  at  as  a  visionary.  Six  weeks  of  waiting  and 
debating  induced  the  authorities  to  fit  up  an  unoccupied  building 
at  a  little  distance  from  the  town.  She  commenced  with  six  out 
cast  boys,  and  in  five  weeks  the  house  would  not  hold  the  number 
that  came.  The  commissioners,  at  her  instance,  erected  the  pre 
sent  school-building  of  Bordentown,  a  three-story  brick  building, 
costing  four  thousand  dollars;  and  there,  in  the  winter  of  1853-4, 
she  organized  the  city  free-school  with  a  roll  of  six  hundred 
pupils.  But  the  severe  labor,  and  the  great  amount  of  loud 
speaking  required,  in  the  newly  plastered  rooms,  injured  her 
health,  and  for  a  time  deprived  her  of  her  voice — the  prime  agent 
of  instruction.  Being  unable  to  teach,  she  left  New  Jersey  about 
the  1st  of  March,  1854,  seeking  rest  and  a  milder  climate,  and 
went  as  far  south  as  Washington.  While  there,  a  friend  and 
distant  relative,  then  in  Congress,  voluntarily  obtained  for  her  an 
appointment  in  the  Patent  Office,  where  she  continued  until  the 
fall  of  1857.  She  was  employed  at  first  as  a  copyist,  and  after 
wards  in  the  more  responsible  work  of  abridging  original  papers, 
and  preparing  records  for  publication.  As  she  was  an  excellent 
chirographer,  Avith  a  clear  head  for  business,  and  was  paid  by  the 
piece  and  not  by  the  month,  she  made  money  fast,  as  matters  were 
then  reckoned,  and  she  was  very  liberal  with  it.  I  met  her  often 
during  those  years,  as  I  have  since  and  rarely  saw  her  without 
some  pet  scheme  of  benevolence  on  ner  hands  which  she  pursued 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  was  quite  heroic,  and  sometimes  amu 
sing.  The  roll  of  those  she  has  helped,  or  tried  to  help,  with  her 
purse,  her  personal  influence  or  her  counsels,  would  be  a  long  one; 
orphan  children,  deserted  wives,  destitute  women,  sick  or  unsuc 
cessful  relatives,  men  who  had  failed  in  business,  and  boys  who 

15 


114  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

never  had  any  business — all  who  were  in  want,  or  in  trouble,  and 
could  claim  the  slightest  acquaintance,  came  to  her  for  aid  and 
were  never  repulsed.  Strange  it  was  to  see  this  generous  girl, 
whose  OAvn  hands  ministered  to  all  her  wants,  always  giving  to 
those  around  her,  instead  of  receiving,  strengthening  the  hands 
and  directing  the  steps  of  so  many  who  would  have  seemed  better 
calculated  to  help  her.  She  must  have  had  a  native  genius  for 
nursing;  for  in  her  twelfth  year  she  was  selected  as  the  special 
attendant  of  a  sick  brother,  and  remained  in  his  chamber  by  day 
and  by  night  for  two  years,  with  only  a  respite  of  one  half-day  in 
all  that  time.  Think,  O  reader!  of  a  little  girl  in  short  dresses 
and  pantalettes,  neither  going  to  school  nor  to  play,  but  impri 
soned  for  years  in  the  deadly  air  of  a  sick  room,  and  made  to  feel, 
every  moment,  that  a  brother's  life  depended  on  her  vigilance. 
Then  followed  a  still  longer  period  of  sickness  and  feebleness  on 
her  own  part;  and  from  that  time  to  the  present,  sickness,  danger 
and  death  have  been  always  near  her,  till  they  have  grown  fami 
liar  as  playmates,  and  she  has  come  to  understand  all  the  wants 
and  ways  and  waywardness  of  the  sick;  has  learned  to  anticipate 
their  wishes  and  cheat  them  of  their  fears.  Those  who  have  been 
under  her  immediate  care,  will  understand  me  when  I  say  there 
is  healing  in  the  touch  of  her  hand,  and  anodyne  in  the  low 
melody  of  her  voice.  In  the  first  year  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  admin 
istration  she  was  hustled  out  of  the  Patent  Office  on  a  suspicion 
of  anti-slavery  sentiments.  She  returned  to  New  England,  and 
devoted  her  time  to  study  and  works  of  benevolence.  In  the  winter 
following  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  she  returned  to  Washington 
at  the  solicitation  of  her  friends  there,  and  would  doubtless  have 
been  reinstated  if  peace  had  been  maintained.  I  happened  to  see 
her  a  day  or  two  after  the  news  came  that  Fort  Sumter  had  been 
fired  on.  She  was  confident,  even  enthusiastic.  She  had  feared 
that  the  Southern  aristocracy,  by  their  close  combination  and 
superior  political  training,  might  succeed  in  gradually  subjugating 
the  whole  country ;  but  of  that  there  was  no  longer  any  danger. 


CLARA   HARLOWE   BARTON.  115 

The  war  might  be  long  and  bloody,  but  the  rebels  had  volun 
tarily  abandoned  a  policy  in  which  the  chances  were  in  favor  of 
their  ultimate  success,  for  one  in  which  they  had  no  chance  at  all. 
For  herself,  she  had  saved  a  little  in  time  of  peace,  and  she  in 
tended  to  devote  it  and  herself  to  the  service  of  her  country  and 
of  humanity.  If  war  must  be,  she  neither  expected  nor  desired  to 
come  out  of  it  with  a  dollar.  If  she  survived,  she  could  no  doubt 
earn  a  living;  and  if  she  did  not,  it  was  no  matter.  This  is 
actually  the  substance  of  what  she  said,  and  pretty  nearly  the 
words — without  appearing  to  suspect  that  it  was  remarkable." 

Three  days  after  Major  Anderson  had  lowered  his  flag  in 
Charleston  Harbor,  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  Militia  started  for 
Washington.  Their  passage  through  Baltimore,  on  the  19th 
of  April,  1861,  is  a  remarkable  point  in  our  national  his 
tory.  The  next  day  about  thirty  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
were  placed  in  the  Washington  Infirmary,  where  the  Judiciary 
Square  Hospital  now  stands.  Miss  Barton  proceeded  promptly 
to  the  spot  to  ascertain  their  condition  and  afford  such  voluntary 
relief  as  might  be  in  her  power.  Hence,  if  she  was  not  the  first 
person  in  the  country  in  this  noble  work,  no  one  could  have  been 
more  than  a  few  hours  before  her.  The  regiment  was  quartered 
at  the  Capitol,  and  as  those  early  volunteers  will  remember, 
troops  on  their  first  arrival  were  often  very  poorly  provided  for. 
The  21st  of  April  happened  to  be  Sunday.  No  omnibuses  ran 
that  day,  and  street  cars  as  yet  were  not ;  so  she  hired  five  colored 
persons,  loaded  them  with  baskets  of  ready  prepared  food,  and 
proceeded  to  the  Capitol.  The  freight  they  bore  served  as  coun 
tersign  and  pass ;  she  entered  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  distributed 
her  welcome  store.  Many  of  the  soldiers  were  from  her  own 
neighborhood,  and  as  they  thronged  around  her,  she  stood  upon 
the  steps  to  the  Vice  President's  chair  and  read  to  them  from  a 
paper  she  had  brought,  the  first  written  history  of  their  departure 
and  their  journey.  These  two  days  were  the  first  small  begin 
nings  of  her  military  experience, — steps  which  naturally  led  to 


116 

much  else.  Men  wrote  home  their  own  impressions  of  what  they 
saw ;  and  her  acts  found  ready  reporters.  Young  soldiers  whom 
she  had  taught  or  known  as  boys  a  few  years  before,  called  to  see 
her  on  their  way  to  the  front.  Troops  were  gathering  rapidly, 
and  hospitals — the  inevitable  shadows  of  armies — were  springing 
up  and  getting  filled.  Daily  she  visited  them,  bringing  to  the 
sick  news,  and  delicacies  and  comforts  of  her  own  procuring,  and 
writing  letters  for  those  who  could  not  write  themselves.  Mo 
thers  and  sisters  heard  of  her,  and  begged  her  to  visit  this  one 
and  that,  committing  to  her  care  letters,  socks,  jellies  and  the 
like.  Her  work  and  its  fame  grew  week  by  week,  and  soon  her 
room,  for  she  generally  had  but  one,  became  sadly  encumbered 
with  boxes,  and  barrels  and  baskets,  of  the  most  varied  contents. 
Through  the  summer  of  1862,  the  constant  stock  she  had  on 
hand  averaged  about  five  tons.  The  goods  were  mainly  the  con 
tributions  of  liberal  individuals,  churches  and  sewing-circles  to 
whom  she  was  personally  known.  But,  although  articles  of 
clothing,  lint,  bandages,  cordials,  preserved  fruits,  liquors,  and 
the  like  might  be  sent,  there  was  always  much  which  she  had  to 
buy  herself. 

During  this  period  as  in  her  subsequent  labors,  she  neither 
sought  or  received  recognition  by  any  department  of  the  Govern 
ment,  by  which  I  mean  only  that  she  had  no  acknowledged  posi 
tion,  rank,  rights  or  duties,  was  not  employed,  paid,  or  compensated 
in  any  way,  had  authority  over  no  one,  and  was  subject  to  no  one's 
orders.  She  was  simply  an  American  lady,  mistress  of  herself 
and  of  no  one  else ;  free  to  stay  at  home,  if  she  had  a  home,  and 
equally  free  to  go  where  she  pleased,  if  she  could  procure  pass 
ports  and  transportation,  which  was  not  always  an  easy  matter. 
From  many  individual  officers,  she  received  most  valuable  en 
couragement  and  assistance ;  from  none  more  than  from  General 
Rucker,  the  excellent  Chief  Quartermaster  at  Washington.  He 
furnished  her  storage  for  her  supplies  when  necessary,  transpor 
tation  for  herself  and  them,  and  added  to  her  stores  valuable 


CLARA    HARLOWE    BARTON.  117 

contributions  at  times  when  they  were  most  wanted.  She  herself 
declares,  with  generous  exaggeration,  that  if  she  has  ever  done 
any  good,  it  has  been  due  to  the  watchful  care  and  kindness  of 
General  Eucker. 

About  the  close  of  1861,  Miss  Barton  returned  to  Massachu 
setts  to  Avatch  over  the  declining  health  of  her  father,  now  in  his 
eighty-eighth  year,  and  failing  fast.  In  the  following  March  she 
placed  his  remains  in  the  little  cemetery  at  Oxford,  and  then 
returned  to  Washington  and  to  her  former  labors.  But,  as  the 
spring  and  summer  campaigns  progressed,  Washington  ceased  to 
be  the  best  field  for  the  philanthropist.  In  the  hospitals  of  the 
Capitol  the  sick  and  wounded  found  shelter,  food  and  attendance. 
Private  generosity  now  centered  there ;  and  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission  had  its  office  and  officers  there  to  minister 
to  the  thousand  exceptional  wants  not  provided  for  by  the  Army 
Regulations.  There  were  other  fields  where  the  harvest  was 
plenteous  and  the  laborers  few.  Yet  could  she  as  a  young  and 
not  unattractive  lady,  go  with  safety  and  propriety  among  a 
hundred  thousand  armed  men,  and  tell  them  that  no  one  had 
sent  her?  She  would  encounter  rough  soldiers,  and  camp-fol 
lowers  of  every  nation,  and  officers  of  all  grades  of  character  ; 
and  could  she  bear  herself  so  wisely  and  loftily  in  all  trials  as  to 
awe  the  impertinent,  and  command  the  respect  of  the  supercil 
ious,  so  that  she  might  be  free  to  come  and  go  at  her  will,  and  do 
what  should  seem  good  to  her  ?  Or,  if  she  failed  to  maintain  a 
character  proof  against  even  inuendoes,  would  she  not  break  the 
bridge  over  which  any  successor  would  have  to  pass?  These 
questions  she  pondered,  and  prayed  and  wept  over  for  months, 
and  has  spoken  of  the  mental  conflict  as  the  most  trying  one  of 
her  life.  She  had  foreseen  and  told  all  these  fears  to  her  father ; 
and  the  old  man,  on  his  death-bed,  advised  her  to  go  wherever 
she  felt  it  a  duty  to  go.  He  reminded  her  that  he  himself  had 
been  a  soldier,  and  said  that  all  true  soldiers  would  respect  her. 
He  was  naturally  a  man  of  great  benevolence,  a  member  of  the 


118 

Masonic  fraternity,  of  the  Degree  of  Royal  Arch  Mason ;  and 
in  his  last  days  he  spoke  much  of  the  purposes  and  noble 
charities  of  the  Order.  She  had  herself  received  the  initiation 
accorded  to  daughters  of  Royal  Arch  Masons,  and  wore  on  her 
bosom  a  Masonic  emblem,  by  which  she  was  easily  recognized  by 
the  brotherhood,  and  which  subsequently  proved  a  valuable 
talisman.  At  last  she  reached  the  conclusion  that  it  was  right 
for  her  to  go  amid  the  actual  tumult  of  battle  and  shock  of 
armies.  And  the  fact  that  she  has  moved  and  labored  with  the 
principal  armies  in  the  North  and  in  the  South  for  two  years  and 
a  half,  and  that  now  no  one  who  knows  her  would  speak  of  her 
without  the  most  profound  respect,  proves  two  things — that  there 
may  be  heroism  of  the  highest  order  in  American  women — and 
that  American  armies  are  not  to  be  judged  of,  by  the  recorded 
statements  concerning  European  ones. 

Her  first  tentative  efforts  at  going  to  the  field  were  cautious  and 
beset  with  difficulties.  Through  the  long  Peninsula  campaign  as 
each  transport  brought  its  load  of  suffering  men,  with  the  mud 
of  the  Chickahominy  and  the  gore  of  battle  baked  hard  upon 
them  like  the  shells  of  turtles,  she  went  down  each  day  to  the 
wharves  with  an  ambulance  laden  with  dressings  and  restoratives, 
and  there  amid  the  turmoil  and  dirt,  and  under  the  torrid  sun  of 
Washington,  toiled  day  by  day,  alleviating  such  suffering  as  she 
could.  And  when  the  steamers  turned  their  prows  down  the 
river,  she  looked  wistfully  after  them,  longing  to  go  to  those  dread 
shores  whence  all  this  misery  came.  But  she  was  alone  arid  un 
known,  and  how  could  she  get  the  means  and  the  permission  to 
go  ?  The  military  authorities  were  overworked  in  those  days  and 
plagued  with  unreasonable  applications,  and  as  a  class  are  not 
very  indulgent  to  unusual  requests.  The  first  officer  of  rank  who 
gave  her  a  kind  answer  was  a  man  who  never  gave  an  unkind 
reply  without  great  provocation — Dr.  R.  H.  Coolidge,  Medical 
Inspector.  Through  him  a  pass  was  obtained  from  Surgeon- 
General  Hammond,  and  she  was  referred  to  Major  Rucker,  Quar- 


CLARA    HARLOWE    BARTON.  119 

termaster,  for  transportation.  The  Major  listened  to  her  story  so 
patiently  and  kindly  that  she  was  overcome,  and  sat  down  and 
wept.  It  was  then  too  late  in  the  season  to  go  to  McClellan's 
army,  so  she  loaded  a  railroad  car  with  supplies  and  started  for 
Culpepper  Court-House,  then  crowded  with  the  wounded  from 
the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain.  With  a  similar  car-load  she  was 
the  first  of  the  volunteer  aid  that  reached  Fairfax  Station  at  the 
cl  >se  of  the  disastrous  clays  that  culminated  in  the  second  Bull 
Run,  and  the  battle  of  Chantilly.  On  these  two  expeditions,  and 
one  to  Fredericksburg,  Miss  Barton  was  accompanied  by  friends, 
at  least  one  gentleman  and  a  lady  in  each  case,  but  at  last  a  time 
came,  when  through  the  absence  or  engagements  of  these,  she 
must  go  alone  or  not  at  all. 

On  Sunday,  the  14th  of  September,  1862,  she  loaded  an  army 
wagon  with  supplies  and  started  to  follow  the  march  of  General 
McClellan.  Her  only  companions  were  Mr.  Cornelius  M.  Welles, 
the  teacher  of  the  first  contraband  school  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia — a  young  man  of  rare  talent  and  devotion — and  one  teamster. 
She  travelled  three  days  along  the  dusty  roads  of  Maryland, 
buying  bread  as  she  went  to  the  extent  of  her  moans  of  convey 
ance,  and  sleeping  in  the  wagon  by  night.  After  dark,  on  the 
night  of  the  sixteenth,  she  reached  Burnside's  Corps,  and  found 
the  two  armies  lying  face  to  face  along  the  opposing  ridges  of  hills 
that  bound  the  valley  of  the  Antietam.  There  had  already  been 
heavy  skirmishing  far  away  on  the  right  where  Hooker  had 
forded  the  creek  and  taken  position  on  the  opposite  hills ;  and 
the  air  was  dark  and  thick  with  fog  and  exhalations,  with  the 
smoke  of  camp-fires  and  premonitory  death.  There  was  little 
sleep  that  night,  and  as  the  morning  sun  rose  bright  and  beautiful 
over  the  Blue  Ridge  and  dipped  down  into  the  Valley,  the  firing 
on  the  right  was  resumed.  Reinforcements  soon  began  to  move 
along  the  rear  to  Hooker's  support.  Thinking  the  place  of  dan 
ger  was  the  place  of  duty,  Miss  Barton  ordered  her  mules  to  be 
harnessed  and  took  her  place  in  the  swift  train  of  artillery  that 


120  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

was  passing.  On  reaching  the  scene  of  action,  they  turned  into 
a  field  of  tall  corn,  and  drove  through  it  to  a  large  barn.  They 
were  close  upon  the  line  of  battle ;  the  rebel  shot  and  shell  flew 
thickly  around  and  over  them ;  and  in  the  barn-yard  and  among 
the  corn  lay  torn  and  bleeding  men — the  worst  cases — just 
brought  from  the  places  where  they  had  fallen.  The  army  medi 
cal  supplies  had  not  yet  arrived,  the  small  stock  of  dressings  was 
exhausted,  and  the  surgeons  were  trying  to  make  bandages  of 
corn-husks.  Miss  Barton  opened  to  them  her  stock  of  dressings, 
and  proceeded  with  her  companions  to  distribute  bread  steeped  in 
wine  to  the  wounded  and  fainting.  In  the  course  of  the  day  she 
picked  up  twenty-five  men  who  had  come  to  the  rear  with  the 
wounded,  and  set  them  to  work  administering  restoratives,  bring 
ing  and  applying  water,  lifting  men  to  easier  positions,  stopping 
hemorrhages,  etc.,  etc.  At  length  her  bread  was  all  spent ;  but 
luckily  a  part  of  the  liquors  she  had  brought  were  found  to  have 
been  packed  in  meal,  which  suggested  the  idea  of  making  gruel. 
A  farm-house  was  found  connected  with  the  barn,  and  on  search 
ing  the  cellar,  she  discovered  three  barrels  of  flour,  and  a  bag 
of  salt,  which  the  rebels  had  hidden  the  day  before.  Kettles 
were  found  about  the  house,  and  she  prepared  to  make  gruel  on  a 
large  scale,  which  was  carried  in  buckets  and  distributed  along 
the  line  for  miles.  On  the  ample  piazza  of  the  house  were  ranged 
the  operating  tables,  where  the  surgeons  performed  their  opera 
tions  ;  and  on  that  piazza  she  kept  her  place  from  the  forenoon 
till  nightfall,  mixing  gruel  and  directing  her  assistants,  under  the 
fire  of  one  of  the  greatest  and  fiercest  battles  of  modern  times. 
Before  night  her  face  was  as  black  as  a  negro's,  and  her  lips  and 
throat  parched  with  the  sulphurous  smoke  of  battle.  But  night 
came  at  last,  and  the  wearied  armies  lay  down  on  the  ground  to 
rest ;  and  the  dead  and  wounded  lay  everywhere.  Darkness  too 
had  its  terrors,  and  as  the  night  closed  in,  the  surgeon  in  charge 
at  the  old  farm-house,  1  x>ked  despairingly  at  a  bit  of  candle  and 
said  it  was  the  only  one  on  the  place ;  and  110  one  could  stir  till 


CLARA    HARLOWE    BARTON.  121 

morning.  A  thousand  men  dangerously  wounded  and  suffering 
terribly  from  thirst  lay  around,  and  many  must  die  before  the  light 
of  another  day.  It  was  a  fearful  thing  to  die  alone  and  in  the 
dark,  and  no  one  could  move  among  the  wounded,  for  fear  of 
stumbling  over  them.  Miss  Barton  replied,  that,  profiting  by 
her  experience  at  Chantilly,  she  had  brought  with  her  thirty  lan 
terns,  and  an  abundance  of  candles.  It  was  worth  a  journey  to 
Antietam,  to  light  the  gloom  of  that  night.  On  the  morrow,  the 
fighting  had  ceased,  but  the  work  of  caring  for  the  wounded  was 
resumed  and  continued  all  day.  On  the  third  day  the  regular 
supplies  arrived,  and  Miss  Barton  having  exhausted  her  small 
stores,  and  finding  that  continued  fatigue  and  watching  were 
bringing  on  a  fever,  turned  her  course  towards  Washington.  It 
was  with  difficulty  that  she  was  able  to  reach  home,  where  she 
was  confined  to  her  bed  for  some  time.  When  she  recovered  suffi 
ciently  to  call  on  Colonel  Rucker,  and  told  him  that  with  five 
wagons  she  could  have  taken  supplies  sufficient  for  the  immediate 
wants  of  all  the  wounded  in  the  battle,  that  officer  shed  tears,  and 
charged  her  to  ask  for  enough  next  time. 

It  was  about  the  23d  of  October,  when  another  great  battle 
was  expected,  that  she  next  set  out  with  a  well  appointed  and 
heavily  laden  train  of  six  wagons  and  an  ambulance,  with  seven 
teamsters,  and  thirty-eight  mules.  The  men  were  rough  fellows, 

*/  O  O 

little  used  or  disposed  to  be  commanded  by  a  woman ;  and  they 
mutinied  when  they  had  gone  but  a  few  miles.  A  plain  state 
ment  of  the  course  she  should  pursue  in  case  of  insubordination, 
induced  them  to  proceed  and  confine  themselves,  for  the  time 
being,  to  imprecations  and  grumbling.  When  she  overtook  the 
army,  it  was  crossing  the  Potomac,  below  Harper's  Ferry.  Her 
men  refused  to  cross.  She  offered  them  the  alternative  to  go 
forward  peaceably,  or  to  be  dismissed  and  replaced  by  soldiers. 
They  chose  the  former,  and  from  that  day  forward  were  all  obedi 
ence,  fidelity  and  usefulness.  The  expected  battle  was  not  fought, 
but  gave  place  to  a  race  for  Richmond.  The  Army  of  the  Poto- 

16 


122 

mac  had  the  advantage  in  regard  to  distance,  keeping  for  a  time 
along  the  base  of  the  Blue  Kidge,  while  the  enemy  followed  the 
course  of  the  Shenandoah.  There  was  naturally  a  skirmish  at 
every  gap.  The  rebels  were  generally  the  first  to  gain  possession 
of  the  pass,  from  which  they  would  attempt  to  surprise  some 
part  of  the  army  that  was  passing,  and  capture  a  portion  of  our 
supply  trains.  Thus  every  day  brought  a  battle  or  a  skirmish, 
and  its  accession  to  the  list  of  sick  and  wounded  ;  and  for  a  period 
of  about  three  weeks,  until  Warrenton  Junction  was  reached,  the 
national  army  had  no  base  of  operations,  nor  any  reinforcements 
or  supplies.  The  sick  had  to  be  carried  all  that  time  over  the 
rough  roads  in  wagons  or  ambulances.  Miss  Barton  with  her 
wagon  train  accompanied  the  Ninth  Army  Corps,  as  a  general 
purveyor  for  the  sick.  Her  original  supply  of  comforts  was  very 
considerable,  and  her  men  contrived  to  add  to  it  every  day  such 
fresh  provisions  as  could  be  gathered  from  the  country.  At  each 
night's  encampment,  they  lighted  their  fires  and  prepared  fresh 
food  and  necessaries  for  the  moving  hospital.  Through  all  that 
long  and  painful  march  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Fredericksburg, 
those  wagons  constituted  the  hospital  larder  and  kitchen  for  all 
the  sick  within  reach. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  after  Burnside  assumed  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  route  by  Fredericksburg  was 
selected,  and  the  march  was  conducted  down  the  left  bank  of  the 
Kappahannock  to  a  position  opposite  that  city.  From  Warrenton 
Junction  Miss  Barton  made  a  visit  to  Washington,  while  her 
wagons  kept  on  with  the  army,  which  she  rejoined  with  fresh 
supplies  at  Falmouth.  She  remained  in  camp  until  after  the 
unsuccessful  attack  on  the  works  behind  Fredericksburg.  She 
was  on  the  bank  of  the  river  in  front  of  the  Lacy  House,  within 
easy  rifle  shot  range  of  the  enemy,  at  the  time  of  the  attack  of 
the  llth  December — witnessed  the  unavailing  attempts  to  lay 
pontoon  bridges  directly  into  the  city,  and  the  heroic  crossing  of 
the  19th  and  20th  Massachusetts  Regiments  and  the  7th  Michi- 


CLARA    HAKLOWE    BAKTl  N.  123 

gan.  During  the  brief  occupation  of  the  city  she  remained  in  it, 
organizing  the  hospital  kitchens ;  and  after  the  withdrawal  of  the 
troops,  she  established  a  private  kitchen  for.  supplying  delicacies 
to  the  wounded.  Although  it  was  now  winter  and  the  weather 
inclement,  she  occupied  an  old  tent  while  her  train  was  encamped 
around ;  and  the  cooking  was  performed  in  the  open  air.  When 
the  wounded  from  the  attack  on  the  rebel  batteries  were  recovered 
by  flag  of  truce,  fifty  of  them  were  brought  to  her  camp  at  night.' 
They  had  lain  several  days  in  the  cold,  and  were  wounded,  fam 
ished  and  frozen.  She  had  the  snow  cleaned  away,  large  fires 
built  and  the  men  wrapped  in  blankets.  An  old  chimney  was 
torn  down,  the  bricks  heated  in  the  fire,  and  placed  around  them. 
As  she  believed  that  wounded  men,  exhausted  and  depressed  by 
the  loss  of  blood,  required  stimulants,  and  as  Surgeon-General 
Hammond,  with  characteristic  liberality  had  given  her  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  gallons  of  confiscated  liquor,  she  gave  them  with 
warm  food,  enough  strong  hot  toddy  to  make  them  all  measurably 
drunk.  The  result  was  that  they  slept  comfortably  until  morn 
ing,  when  the  medical  officers  took  them  in  charge.  It  was  her 
practice  to  administer  a  similar  draught  to  each  patient  on  his 
leaving  for  Acquia  Creek,  en  route  to  the  Washington  hospitals. 

A  circumstance  which  occurred  during  the  battle  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  will  illustrate  very  strikingly  the  courage  of  Miss  Barton, 
a  courage  which  has  never  faltered  in  the  presence  of  danger, 
when  what  she  believed  to  be  duty  called.  In  the  skirmishing 
of  the  12th  of  December,  the  day  preceding  the  great  and  disas 
trous  battle,  a  part  of  the  Union  troops  had  crossed  over  to 
Fredericksburg,  and  after  a  brief  fight  had  driven  back  a  body 
of  rebels,  wounding  and  capturing  a  number  of  them  whom  they 
sent  as  prisoners  across  the  river  to  Falmouth,  where  Miss  Barton 
as  yet  had  her  camp.  The  wounded  rebels  were  brought  to  her 
for  care  and  treatment.  Among  them  was  a  young  officer,  mor 
tally  wounded  by  a  shot  in  the  thigh.  Though  she  could  not 
save  his  life,  she  ministered  to  him  as  well  as  she  could,  partially 


124 

staunching  his  wound,  quenching  his  raging  thirst,  and  endeavor 
ing  to  make  his  condition  as  comfortable  as  possible.  Just  at  this 
time,  an  orderly  arrived  with  a  message  from  the  Medical 
Director  of  the  Ninth  Army  Corps  requesting  her  to  come  over 
to  Fredericksburg,  and  organize  the  hospitals  and  diet  kitchens 
for  the  corps.  The  wounded  rebel  officer  heard  the  request,  and 
beckoning  to  her,  for  he  was  too  weak  to  speak  aloud,  he  whis 
pered  a  request  that  she  would  not  go.  She  replied  that  she 
must  do  so ;  that  her  duty  to  the  corps  to  which  she  was  attached 
required  it.  "  Lady,"  replied  the  wounded  rebel,  "  you  have  been 
very  kind  to  me.  You  could  not  save  my  life,  but  you  have 
endeavored  to  render  death  easy.  I  owe  it  to  you  to  tell  you 
what  a  few  hours  ago  I  would  have  died  sooner  than  have 
revealed.  The  whole  arrangement  of  the  Confederate  troops  and 
artillery  is  intended  as  a  trap  for  your  people.  Every  street  and 
lane  of  the  city  is  covered  by  our  cannon.  They  are  now  con 
cealed,  and  do  not  reply  to  the  bombardment  of  your  army, 
because  they  wish  to  entice  you  across.  When  your  entire  army 
has  reached  the  other  side  of  the  Rappahannock  and  attempts  to 
move  along  the  streets,  they  will  find  Fredericksburg  only  a 
slaughter  pen,  and  not  a  regiment  of  them  will  be  allowed  to 
escape.  Do  not  go  over,  for  you  will  go  to  certain  death !"  While 
her  tender  sensibilities  prevented  her  from  adding  to  the  suffering 
of  the  dying  man,  by  not  apparently  heeding  his  warning,  Miss 
Barton  did  not  on  account  of  it  forego  for  an  instant  her  intention 
of  sharing  the  fortunes  of  the  Ninth  Corps  on  the  other  side  of 
the  river.  The  poor  fellow  was  almost  gone,  and  waiting  only  to 
close  his  eyes  on  all  earthly  objects,  she  crossed  on  the  frail 
bridge,  and  was  welcomed  with  cheers  by  the  Ninth  Corps,  who 
looked  upon  her  as  their  guardian  angel.  She  remained  with 
them  until  the  evening  of  their  masterly  retreat,  and  until  the 
wounded  men  of  the  corps  in  the  hospitals  were  all  safely  across. 
While  she  was  in  Fredericksburg,  after  the  battle  of  the  13th, 
some  soldiers  of  the  corps  who  had  been  roving  about  the  city, 


CLARA  HARLOWE  BARTON.  125 

came  to  her  quarters  bringing  with  great  difficulty  a  large  and 
veiy  costly  and  elegant  carpet.  "What  is  this  for?"  asked  Miss 
Barton.  "It  is  for  you,  ma'am/7  said  one  of  the  soldiers;  "you 
have  been  so  good  to  us,  that  we  wanted  to  bring  you  something." 
"Where  did  you  get  it?"  she  asked.  "Oh!  ma'am,  we  confis 
cated  it,"  said  the  soldiers,  "^"o!  no!"  said  the  lady;  "that 
will  never  do.  Governments  confiscate.  Soldiers  when  they 
take  such  things,  steal.  I  am  afraid,  my  men,  you  will  have  to 
take  it  back  to  the  house  from  which  you  took  it.  I  can't  receive 
a  stolen  carpet."  The  men  looked  sheepish  enough,  but  they 
shouldered  the  carpet  and  carried  it  back.  In  the  wearisome 
weeks  that  followed  the  Frederick sburg  disaster,  when  there  was 
not  the  excitement  of  a  coming  battle,  and  the  wounded  whether 
detained  in  the  hospitals  around  Falmouth  or  forwarded  through 
the  deep  mud  to  the  hospital  transports  on  the  Potomac,  still  with 
saddened  countenances  and  depressed  spirits  looked  forward  to  a 
dreary  future,  Miss  Barton  toiled  on,  infusing  hope  and  cheer 
fulness  into  sad  hearts,  and  bringing  the  consolations  of  religion 
to  her  aid,  pointed  them  to  the  only  true  source  of  hope  and 
comfort. 

In  the  early  days  of  April,  1863,  Miss  Barton  went  to  the 
South  with  the  expectation  of  being  present  at  the  combined  land 
and  naval  attack  on  Charleston.  She  reached  the  wharf  at 
Hilton  Head  011  the  afternoon  of  the  7th,  in  time  to  hear  the 
crack  of  Sumter's  guns  as  they  opened  in  broadside  on  Dupont's 
fleet.  That  memorable  assault  accomplished  nothing  unless  it 
might  be  to  ascertain  that  Charleston  could  not  be  taken  by 
water.  The  expedition  returned  to  Hilton  Head,  and  a  period 
of  inactivity  followed,  enlivened  only  by  unimportant  raids,  news 
paper  correspondence,  and  the  small  quai  rels  that  naturally  arise 
in  an  unemployed  army. 

Later  in  the  season  Miss  Barton  accompanied  the  Gil  more 
and  Dahlgren  expedition,  and  was  present  at  nearly  all  the  mili 
tary  operations  on  James,  Folly,  and  Morris  Islands.  The 


126  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

ground  occupied  on  the  latter  by  the  army,  during  the  long  siege 
of  Fort  Wagner,  was  the  low  sand-hills  forming  the  sea-board  of 
the  Island.  No  tree,  shrub,  or  weed  grew  there;  and  the  only 
shelter  was  light  tents  without  floors.  The  light  sand  that 
yielded  to  the  tread,  the  walker  sinking  to  the  ankles  at  almost 
every  step,  glistened  in  the  sun,  and  burned  the  feet  like  particles 
of  fire,  and  as  the  ocean  winds  swept  it,  it  darkened  the  air  and 
filled  the  eyes  and  nostrils.  There  was  no  defense  against  it,  and 
every  wound  speedily  became  covered  with  a  concrete  of  gore  and 
sand.  Tent  pins  would  not  hold  in  the  treacherous  sand,  every 
vigorous  blast  from  the  sea,  overturned  the  tents,  leaving  the 
occupants  exposed  to  the  storm  or  the  torrid  sun.  It  was  here, 
under  the  fire  of  the  heaviest  of  the  rebel  batteries,  that  Miss 
Barton  spent  the  most  trying  part  of  the  summer.  Her  employ 
ment  was,  with  three  or  four  men  detailed  to  assist  her,  to  boil 
water  in  the  lee  of  a  sand-hill,  to  wash  the  wounds  of  the  men 
who  were  daily  struck  by  rebel  shot,  to  prepare  tea  and  coffee, 
and  various  dishes  made  from  dried  fruits,  farina,  and  desiccated 
milk  and  eggs.  On  the  19th  of  July,  when  the  great  night 
assault  was  made  on  Wagner,  and  everybody  expected  to  find 
rest  and  refreshments  within  the  rebel  fortress,  she  alone,  so  far 
as  I  can  learn,  kept  up  her  fires  and  preparations.  She  alone  had 
anything  suitable  to  offer  the  wounded  and  exhausted  men  who 
streamed  back  from  the  repulse,  and  covered  the  sand-hills  like  a 
flight  of  locusts. 

Through  all  the  long  bombardment  that  followed,  until  Sumter 
was  reduced,  and  Wagner  and  Gregg  was  ours,  amid  the  scorching 
sun  and  the  prevalence  of  prostrating  diseases,  though  herself 
more  than  once  struck  down  with  illness,  she  remained  at  her 
post,  a  most  fearless  and  efficient  co-worker  with  the  indefatigable 
agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  Dr.  M.  M.  Marsh,  in  saving 
the  lives  and  promoting  the  health  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union 
army.  "How  could  you,"  said  a  friend  to  her  subsequently, 
"how  could  you  expose  your  life  and  health  to  that  deadly 


CLARA    HARLOWE    BARTON.  127 

heat?"  "Why,"  she  answered,  evidently  without  a  thought  of 
the  heroism  of  the  answer,  "  the  other  ladies  thought  they  could 
not  endure  the  climate,  and  as  I  knew  somebody  must  take  care 
of  the  soldiers,  I  went." 

In  January,  1864,  Miss  Barton  returned  to  the  North,  and 
after  spending  four  or  five  weeks  in  visiting  her  friends  and 
recruiting  her  wasted  strength,  again  took  up  her  position  at 
Washington,  and  commenced  making  preparations  for  the  coming 
campaign  which  from  observation,  she  was  convinced  would  be 
the  fiercest  and  most  destructive  of  human  life  of  any  of  the  war. 
The  first  week  of  the  campaign  found  her  at  the  secondary  base 
of  the  army  at  Belle  Plain,  and  thence  with  the  great  army  of  the 
wounded  she  moved  to  Fredericksburg.  Extensive  as  had  been 
her  preparations,  and  wide  as  were  the  circle  of  friends  who  had 
entrusted  to  her  the  means  of  solace  and  healing,  the  slaughter 
had  been  so  terrific  that  she  found  her  supplies  nearly  exhausted, 
and  for  the  first  time  during  the  war  was  compelled  to  appeal  for 
further  supplies  to  her  friends  at  the  North,  expending  in  the 
meantime  freely,  as  she  had  done  all  along,  of  her  own  private 
means  for  the  succor  of  the  poor  wounded  soldiers.  Moving  on 
to  Port  Eoyal,  and  thence  to  the  James  River,  she  presently 
became  attached  to  the  Army  of  the  James,  where  General  Butler, 
at  the  instance  of  his  Chief  Medical  Director,  Surgeon  McCormick, 
acknowledging  her  past  services,  and  appreciating  her  abilities, 
gave  her  a  recognized  position,  which  greatly  enhanced  her  use 
fulness,  and  enabled  her,  with  her  energetic  nature,  to  contribute 
as  much  to  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the  army  in  that  year,  as 
she  had  been  able  to  do  in  all  her  previous  connection  with  it. 
In  January,  1865,  she  returned  to  Washington,  where  she  was 
detained  from  the  front  for  nearly  two  months  by  the  illness  and 
death  of  a  brother  and  nephew,  and  did  not  again  join  the  army 
in  the  field. 

By  this  time,  of  course,  she  was  very  generally  known,  and 
the  circle  of  her  con  espondence  was  wide.  Her  influence  in  high 


128 

official  quarters  was  supposed  to  be  considerable,  and  she  was  in 
the  daily  receipt  of  inquiries  and  applications  of  various  kinds,  in 
particular  in  regard  to  the  fate  of  men  believed  to  have  been  con 
fined  in  Southern  prisons.  The  great  number  of  letters  received 
of  this  class,  led  her  to  decide  to  spend  some  months  at  Annapolis, 
among  the  camps  and  records  of  paroled  and  exchanged  prisoners, 
for  the  purpose  of  answering  the  inquiries  of  friends.  Her  plan 
of  operation  was  approved  by  President  Lincoln,  March  11, 1865, 
and  notice  of  her  appointment  as  "  General  Correspondent  for  the 
friends  of  Paroled  Prisoners/'  was  published  in  the  newspapers 
extensively,  bringing  in  a  torrent  of  inquiries  and  letters  from 
wives,  parents,  State  officials,  agencies,  the  Sanitary  Commission 
and  the  Christian  Commission.  On  reaching  Annapolis,  she  en 
countered  obstacles  that  were  vexatious,  time- wasting,  and  in  fact, 
insupportable.  Without  rank,  rights  or  authority  credited  by 
law,  the  officials  there  were  at  a  loss  how  to  receive  her.  The 
town  was  so  crowded  that  she  could  find  no  private  lodgings,  and 
had  to  force  herself  as  a  scarce  welcome  guest  upon  some  one  for 
a  few  days,  while  her  baggage  stood  out  in  the  snow.  Nearly 
two  months  were  consumed  in  negotiations  before  an  order  wns 
obtained  from  the  War  Department  to  the  effect  that  the  military 
authorities  at  Annapolis  might  allow  her  the  use  of  a  tent,  and  its 
furniture,  and  a  moderate  supply  of  postage  stamps.  This  was 
not  mandatory,  but  permissive;  and  negotiations  could  now  be 
opened  with  the  gentlemen  at  Annapolis.  In  the  meantime  the 
President  had  been  assassinated,  Richmond  taken,  and  Lee's  army 
surrendered.  The  rebellion  was  breaking  away.  All  prisoners 
were  to  be  released  from  parole,  and  sent  home,  and  nothing 
would  remain  at  Annapolis  but  the  records.  Unfortunately  these 
proved  to  be  of  very  little  service — but  a  small  per  centage  of 
those  inquired  for,  were  found  on  the  rolls,  and  obviously  these, 
for  the  most  part,  were  not  men  who  had  been  lost,  but  who  had 
returned.  She  was  also  informed,  on  good  authority,  that  a  large 
number  of  prisoners  had  been  exchanged  without  roll  or  record, 


CLARA   HARLOWE   BARTON.  129 

and  that  some  rolls  were  so  fraudulent  and  incorrect,  as  to  be 
worthless.  Poor  wretches  in  the  rebel  pens  seemed  even  to  forget 
the  names  their  mother  called  them.  The  Annapolis  scheme  was 
therefore  abandoned,  with  mortification  that  thousands  of  letters 
had  lain  so  long  unanswered,  that  thousands  of  anxious  friends 
were  daily  waiting  for  tidings  of  their  loved  and  lost.  The  pathos 
and  simplicity  of  these  letters  was  often  touching.  An  old  man 
writes  that  he  has  two  sons  and  three  grandsons  in  the  army,  and 
of  two  of  the  five  he  could  get  no  tidings.  Another  says  she 
knew  her  son  was  brave,  and  if  he  died,  he  died  honorably.  He 
was  all  she  had  and  she  gave  him  freely  to  the  country.  If  he  be 
really  lost  she  will  not  repine;  but  she  feels  she  has  a  right  to  be 
told  what  became  of  him.  Many  of  the  writers  seemed  to  have  a 
very  primitive  idea  of  the  way  information  was  to  be  picked  up. 
They  imagined  that  Miss  Barton  was  to  walk  through  all  hos 
pitals,  camps,  armies  and  prisons,  and  narrowly  scrutinizing  every 
face,  would  be  able  to  identify  the  lost  boy  by  the  descriptions 
given  her.  Hence  the  fond  mother  minutely  described  her  boy 
as  he  remained  graven  on  her  memory  on  the  day  of  his  departure. 
The  result  of  these  delays  was  the  organization,  by  Miss  Barton, 
at  her  own  cost,  of  a  Bureau  of  Records  of  Missing  Men  of  the 
Armies  of  the  United  States,  at  Washington.  Here  she  collected 
all  rolls  of  prisoners,  hospital  records,  and  records  of  burials  in 
the  rebel  prisons  and  elsewhere,  and  at  short  intervals  published 
Rolls  of  Missing  Men,  which,  by  the  franks  of  some  of  her  frinds 
among  the  Members  of  Congress,  were  sent  to  all  parts  of  the 
United  States,  and  posted  in  prominent  places,  and  in  many 
instances  copied  into  local  papers.  The  method  adopted  for  the 
discovery  of  information  concerning  these  missing  men,  and  the 
communication  of  that  information  to  their  friends  who  had  made 
inquiries  concerning  them  may  be  thus  illustrated. 

A  Mrs.  James  of  Kennebunk,  Maine,  has  seen  a  notice  in  the 
paper  that  Miss  Clara  Barton  of  Washington  will  receive  inqui 
ries  from  friends  of  "missing  men  of  the  Army,"  and   will  en- 
17 


130  WOMAN'S  WOKK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

deavor  to  obtain  information  for  them  without  fee  or  reward. 
She  forthwith  writes  to  Miss  Barton  that  she  is  anxious  to  gain 
tidings  of  her  husband,  Eli  James,  Sergeant  Company  F.  Fourth 
Maine  Infantry,  who  has  not  been  heard  of  since  the  battle  of 
.  This  letter,  when  received,  is  immediately  acknow 
ledged,  registered  in  a  book,  endorsed  and  filed  away  for  conve 
nient  reference.  The  answer  satisfied  Mrs.  James  for  the  time, 
that  her  letter  was  not  lost  and  that  some  attention  is  given  to 
her  inquiry.  If  the  fate  of  Sergeant  James  is  known  or  can  be 
learned  from  the  official  rolls  the  information  is  sent  at  once. 
Otherwise  the  case  lies  over  until  there  are  enough  to  form  a  roll, 
which  will  probably  be  within  a  few  weeks.  A  roll  of  Missing 
Men  is  then  made  up — with  an  appeal  for  information  respecting 
them,  of  which  from  twenty  thousand  to  thirty  thousand  copies 
are  printed  to  be  posted  all  over  the  United  States,  in  all  places 
where  soldiers  are  most  likely  to  congregate.  It  is  not  impos 
sible,  that  in  say  two  weeks7  time,  one  James  Miller,  of  Keokuk, 
Iowa,  writes  that  he  has  seen  the  name  of  his  friend  James 
posted  for  information ;  that  he  found  him  lying  on  the  ground, 

at  the  battle  of mortally  wounded  with  a  fragment  of 

shell ;  that  he,  James,  gave  the  writer  a  few  articles  from  about 
his  person,  and  a  brief  message  to  his  wife  and  children,  whom 
he  is  now  unable  to  find ;  that  the  national  troops  fell  back  from 
that  portion  of  the  field  leaving  the  dead  within  the  enemy's 
lines,  who  consequently  were  never  reported.  When  this  letter 
is  received  it  is  also  registered  in  a  book,  endorsed  and  filed,  and 
a  summary  of  its  contents  is  sent  to  Mrs.  James,  with  the  inti 
mation  that  further  particulars  of  interest  to  her  can  be  learned 
by  addressing  James  Miller,  of  Keokuk,  Iowa. 

Soon  after  entering  fully  upon  this  work  in  Washington,  and 
having  obtained  the  rolls  of  the  prison  hospitals  of  Wilmington, 
Salisbury,  Florence,  Charleston,  and  other  Rebel  prisons  of  the 
South,  Miss  Barton  ascertained  that  Dorrance  Atwater,  a  young 
Connecticut  soldier,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  at  Andersonville, 


CLARA  HARLOWE  BARTON.  131 

Georgia,  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  all  the  records  of 
interments  in  that  field  of  death,  during  his  employment  in  the 
hospital  there,  and  that  he  could  identify  the  graves  of  most  of 
the  thirteen  thousand  who  had  died  there  the  victims  of  Kebel 
cruelty. 

Atwater  was  induced  to  permit  Government  officers  to  copy 
his  roll,  and  on  the  representation  of  Miss  Barton  that  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  putting  up  head-boards  to  the  graves  of  the 
Union  Soldiers,  Captain  James  M.  Moore,  Assistant  Quarter 
master,  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Andcrsonville  with  young 
Atwater  and  a  suitable  force,  to  lay  out  the  grounds  as  a  cemetery 
and  place  head-boards  to  the  graves;  and  Miss  Barton  was  re 
quested  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  accompany  him.  She  did  so, 
and  the  grounds  were  laid  out  and  fenced,  and  all  the  graves 
except  about  four  hundred  which  could  not  be  identified  were 
marked  with  suitable  head-boards.  On  their  return,  Miss  Barton 
resumed  her  duties,  and  Captain  Moore  caused  Atwater's  arrest 
on  the  charge  of  having  stolen  from  the  Government  the  list  he 
had  loaned  them  for  copying,  and  after  a  hasty  trial  by  Court- 
Martial,  he  was  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned  in  the  Auburn  State 
Prison  for  two  years  and  six  months.  The  sentence  was  imme 
diately  carried  into  effect. 

Miss  Barton  felt  that  this  whole  charge,  trial  and  sentence,  was 
grossly  unjust ;  that  Atwater  had  committed  no  crime,  not  even 
a  technical  one,  and  that  he  ought  to  be  relieved  from  imprison 
ment.  She  accordingly  exerted  herself  to  have  the  case  brought 
before  the  President.  This  was  done;  and  in  part  through  the 
influence  of  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  an  order  was  sent  on  to 
the  Warden  of  the  Auburn  Prison  to  set  the  prisoner  at  liberty. 
Atwater  subsequently  published  his  roll  of  the  Andersonville  dead, 
to  which  Miss  Barton  prefixed  a  narrative  of  the  expedition  to 
Andersonville.  Her  Bureau  had  by  this  time  become  an  institu 
tion  of  great  and  indispensable  importance  not  only  to  the  friends 
of  missing  men  but  to  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  to  the  Gov- 


132 

eminent  itself,  which  could  not  without  daily  and  almost  hourly 
reference  to  her  records  settle  the  accounts  for  bounties,  back  pay, 
and  pensions.  Thus  far,  however,  it  had  been  sustained  wholly 
at  her  own  cost,  and  in  this  and  other  labors  for  the  soldiers  she 
had  expended  her  entire  private  fortune  of  eight  or  ten  thousand 
dollars.  Soon  after  the  assembling  of  Congress,  Hon.  Henry 
Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  always  been  her  firm  friend, 
moved  an  appropriation  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  to  remunerate 
her  for  past  expenditure,  and  enable  her  to  maintain  the  Bureau 
of  Records  of  Missing  Men,  which  had  proved  of  such  service. 
To  the  honor  of  Congress  it  should  be  said,  that  the  appropriation 
passed  both  houses  by  a  unanimous  vote.  Miss  Barton  still  con 
tinues  her  good  work,  and  has  been  instrumental  in  sending 
certainty  if  not  solace  to  thousands  of  families,  who  mourned 
their  loved  ones  as  lying  in  unknown  graves. 

In  person  Miss  Barton  is  about  of  medium  height,  her  form 
and  figure  indicating  great  powers  of  endurance.  Though  not 
technically  beautiful,  her  dark  expressive  eye  is  attractive,  and 
she  possesses,  evidently  unconsciously  to  herself,  great  powers  of 
fascination.  Her  voice  is  soft,  low,  and  of  extraordinary  sweet 
ness  of  tone.  As  wre  have  said  she  is  modest,  quiet  and  retiring 
in  manner,  and  is  extremely  reticent  in  speaking  of  anything  she 
has  done,  while  she  is  ever  ready  to  bestow  the  full  meed  of  praise 
on  the  labors  of  others.  Her  devotion  to  her  work  has  been 
remarkable,  and  her  organizing  abilities  are  unsurpassed  among 
her  own  sex  and  equalled  by  very  few  among  the  other.  She  is 
still  young,  and  with  her  power  and  disposition  for  usefulness  is 
destined  we  hope  to  prove  greatly  serviceable  to  the  country  she 
so  ardently  loves. 


HELEN    LOUISE    GILSON. 


ISS  HELEN  LOUISE  GILSON  is  a  native  of  Boston, 
but  removed  in  childhood  to  Chelsea,  Massachusetts, 
where  she  now  resides.  She  is  a  niece  of  Hon.  Frank 
B.  Fay,  former  Mayor  of  Chelsea,  and  was  his  ward. 
Mr.  Fay,  from  the  commencement  of  the  war  took  the  most  active 
interest  in  the  National  cause,  devoting  his  time,  his  wealth  and 
his  personal  efforts  to  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers.  In  the  autumn 
of  1861  he  went  in  person  to  the  seat  of  war,  and  from  that  time 
forward,  in  every  battle  in  which  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 
engaged,  he  was  promptly  upon  the  field  with  his  stores  and 
appliances  of  healing,  and  moved  gently  though  rapidly  among 
the  dead  and  wounded,  soothing  helpless,  suffering  and  bleeding 
men  parched  with  fever,  crazed  with  thirst,  or  lying  neglected  in 
the  last  agonies  of  death.  After  two  years  of  this  independent 
work  performed  when  as  yet  the  Sanitary  Commission  had  no 
field  agencies,  and  did  not  attempt  to  minister  to  the  suffering 
and  wounded  until  they  had  come  under  the  hands  of  the  sur 
geons,  Mr.  Fay  laid  before  the  Sanitary  Commission,  in  the 
winter  of  1863—4,  his  plans  for  an  Auxiliary  Relief  Corps,  to 
afford  personal  relief  in  the  field,  to  the  wounded  soldier,  and 
render  him  such  assistance,  as  should  enable  him  to  bear  with  less 
injury  the  delay  which  must  ensue  before  he  could  come  under 
the  surgeon's  care  or  be  transferred  to  a  hospital,  and  in  cases  of 
the  slighter  wounds  furnish  the  necessary  dressings  and  attention. 

133 


134 

The  Sanitary  Commission  at  once  adopted  these  plans  and  made 
Mr.  Fay  chief  of  the  Auxiliary  Relief  Corps.  In  this  capacity 
he  performed  an  amount  of  labor  of  which  few  men  were  capable, 
till  December,  1864,  when  he  retired  from  it  but  continued  his 
independent  work  till  the  close  of  the  war.  During  his  visits 
at  home  he  was  active  in  organizing  and  directing  measures  for 
raising  supplies  and  money  for  the  Sanitary  Commission  and  the 
independent  measures  of  relief. 

Influenced  by  such  an  example  of  lofty  and  self-sacrificing 
patriotism,  and  with  her  own  young  heart  on  fire  with  love  for 
her  country,  Miss  Gilson  from  the  very  commencement  of  the 
war,  gave  herself  to  the  work  of  caring  for  the  soldiers,  first  at 
home,  and  afterward  in  the  field.  In  that  glorious  uprising  of 
American  women,  all  over  the  North,  in  the  spring  of  1861,  to 
organize  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies  she  was  active  and  among  the 
foremost  in  her  own  city.  She  had  helped  to  prepare  and  collect 
supplies,  and  to  arrange  them  for  transportation.  She  had  also 
obtained  a  contract  for  the  manufacture  of  army  clothing,  from 
the  Government,  by  means  of  which  she  provided  employment 
for  soldiers'  wives  and  daughters,  raising  among  the  benevolent 
and  patriotic  people  of  Chelsea  and  vicinity,  a  fund  which  enabled 
her  to  pay  a  far  more  liberal  sum  than  the  contractors'  prices,  foi 
this  labor. 

When  Mr.  Fay  commenced  his  personal  services  with  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  Miss  Gilson,  wishing  to  accompany  him,  applied 
to  Miss  D.  L.  Dix,  Government  Superintendent  of  Female  Nurses, 
for  a  diploma,  but  as  she  had  not  readied  the  required  age  she 
was  rejected.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  her  from  fulfilling 
her  ardent  desire  of  ministering  to  the  sick  and  wounded,  but 
served  in  a  measure  to  limit  her  to  services  upon  the  field,  where 
she  could  act  in  concert  with  Mr.  Fay,  or  otherwise  under  the 
direction  of  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

Daring  nearly  the  wrhole  term  of  Miss  Gilson's  service  she  was 
in  company  with  Mr.  Fay  and  his  assistants.  The  party  had 


HELEN    LOUISE    GILSOX.  135 

their  own  tent,  forming  a  household,  and  carrying  with  them 
something  of  home-life. 

In  this  manner  she,  with  her  associates,  followed  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  through  its  various  vicissitudes,  and  was  present  at, 
or  near,  almost  every  one  of  its  great  battles  except  the  first  battle 
of  Bull  Hun. 

In  the  summer  of  1862  Miss  Gilson  was  for  some  time  attached 
to  the  Hospital  Transport  service,  and  was  on  board  the  Knicker 
bocker  when  up  the  Pamunky  River  at  White  House,  and  after 
ward  at  Harrison's  Landing  during  the  severe  battles  which 
marked  McClellan's  movement  from  the  Chickahominy  to  the 
James  River.  Amidst  the  terrible  scenes  of  those  eventful  days, 
the  quiet  energy,  the  wonderful  comforting  and  soothing  power, 
and  the  perfect  adaptability  of  Miss  Gilson  to  her  work  were  con 
spicuous. 

Whatever  she  did  was  don,  well,  and  so  noiselessly  that  only 
the  results  were  seen.  When  not  more  actively  employed  she 
would  sit  by  the  bed-sides  of  the  suifering  men,  and  charm  away 
their  pain  by  the  magnetism  of  her  low,  calm  voice,  and  soothing 
words.  She  sang  for  them,  and,  kneeling  beside  them,  where 
they  lay  amidst  all  the  agonizing  sights  and  sounds  of  the  hos 
pital  wards,  and  even  upon  the  field  of  carnage,  her  voice  would 
ascend  in  petition,  for  peace,  for  relief,  for  sustaining  grace  in  the 
brief  journey  to  the  other  world,  carrying  with  it  their  souls  into 
the  realms  of  an  exalted  faith. 

As  may  be  supposed,  Miss  Gilson  exerted  a  remarkable  per 
sonal  influence  over  the  wounded  soldiers  as  well  as  all  those 
with  whom  she  was  brought  in  contact.  She  always  shrank  from 
notoriety,  and  strongly  deprecated  any  publicity  in  regard  to  her 
work;  but  the  thousands  who  witnessed  her  extraordinary  ac 
tivity,  her  remarkable  executive  power,  her  ability  in  evoking 
order  out  of  chaos,  and  providing  for  thousands  of  sick  and 
wounded  men  where  most  persons  would  have  been  completely 
overwhelmed  in  the  care  of  scores  or  hundreds,  could  not  always 


136 

be  prevented  from  speaking  of  her  in  the  public  prints.  The 
uniform  cheerfulness  and  buoyancy  of  spirit  with  which  all  her 
work  was  performed,  added  greatly  to  its  efficiency  in  removing 
the  depressing  influences,  so  common  in  the  hospitals  and  among 
the  wounded. 

From  some  of  the  reports  of  agents  of  the  Sanitary  Commis 
sion  we  select  the  following  passages  referring  to  her,  as  express 
ing  in  more  moderate  language  than  some  others,  the  sentiments 
in  regard  to  her  work  entertained  by  all  who  were  brought  into 
contact  with  her. 

"  Upon  Miss  Gilson's  services,  we  scarcely  dare  trust  ourselves 
to  comment.  Upon  her  experience  we  relied  for  counsel,  and  it 
was  chiefly  due  to  her  advice  and  efforts,  that  the  work  in  our 
hospital  went  on  so  successfully.  Always  quiet,  self-possessed, 
and  prompt  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  she  accomplished  more  than 
any  one  else  could  for  the  relief  of  the  wounded,  besides  being  a 
constant  example  and  embodiment  of  earnestness  for  all.  Her 
ministrations  were  always  grateful  to  the  wounded  men,  who  de 
votedly  loved  her  for  her  self-sacrificing  spirit.  Said  one  of  the 
Fifth  New  Jersey  in  our  hearing,  '  There  isn't  a  man  in  our  regi 
ment  who  wouldn't  lay  down  his  life  for  Miss  Gilson/ 

"  We  have  seen  the  dying  man  lean  his  head  upon  her  shoulder, 
while  she  breathed  into  his  ear  the  soothing  prayer  that  calmed, 
cheered  and  prepared  him  for  his  journey  through  the  dark 
valley. 

"  Under  the  direction  of  Miss  Gilson,  the  special  diet  was  pre 
pared,  and  we  cannot  strongly  enough  express  our  sense  of  the 
invaluable  service  she  rendered  in  this  department.  The  food 
was  always  eagerly  expected  and  relished  by  the  men,  with  many 
expressions  of  praise." 

After  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  Mr.  Fay  and  his  party  went 
thither  on  their  mission  of  help  and  mercy.  And  never  was  such 
a  mission  more  needed.  Crowded  within  the  limits,  and  in  the 
immediate  vicinity,  of  that  small  country-town,  were  twenty-five 


HELEX   LOUISE   GILSOX.  137 

thousand  wounded  men,  thirteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
thirteen  of  our  own,  and  nearly  twelve  thousand  wounded  rebel 
prisoners.  The  Government  in  anticipation  of  the  battle  had 
provided  medical  and  surgical  supplies  and  attendance  for  about 
ten  thousand.  Had  not  the  Sanitary  Commission  supplemented 
this  supply,  and  sent  efficient  agents  to  the  field,  the  loss  of  life, 
and  the  amount  of  suffering,  terrible  as  they  were  with  the  best 
appliances,  must  have  ^een  almost  incredibly  great. 

Here  as  elsewhere  Miss  Gilson  soon  made  a  favorable  impres 
sion  on  the  wounded  men.  They  looked  up  to  her,  reverenced 
and  almost  worshipped  her.  She  had  their  entire  confidence  and 
respect.  Even  the  roughest  of  them  yielded  to  her  influence  and 
obeyed  her  wishes,  which  were  always  made  known  in  a  gentle 
manner  and  in  a  voice  peculiarly  low  and  sweet. 

It  has  been  recorded  by  one  who  knew  her  well,  that  she  once 
stepped  out  of  her  tent,  before  which  a  group  of  brutal  men  were 
fiercely  quarrelling,  having  refused,  with  oaths  and  vile  language, 
to  carry  a  sick  comrade  to  the  hospital  at  the  request  of  one  of 
the  male  agents  of  the  Commission,  and  quietly  advancing  to 
their  midst,  renewed  the  request  as  her  own.  Immediately  every 
angry  tone  was  stilled.  Their  voices  were  lowered,  and  modu 
lated  respectfully.  Their  oaths  ceased,  and  quietly  and  cheer 
fully,  without  a  word  of  objection,  they  lifted  their  helpless 
burden,  and  tenderly  carried  him  away. 

At  the  same  time  she  was  as  efficient  in  action  as  in  influence. 
Without  bustle,  and  with  unmoved  calmness,  she  would  superin 
tend  the  preparation  of  food  for  a  thousand  men,  and  assist  in 
feeding  them  herself.  Just  so  she  moved  amidst  the  flying 
bullets  upon  the  field,  bringing  succor  to  the  wounded ;  or 
through  the  hospitals  amidst  the  pestilent  air  of  the  fever-stricken 
wards.  Self-controlled,  she  could  control  others,  and  order  and 
symmetry  sprung  up  before  her  as  a  natural  result  of  the  opera 
tion  of  a  well-balanced  mind. 

In  all  her  journies  Miss  Gilson  made  use  of  the  opportunities 

18 


138 

afforded  her  wherever  she  stopped  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 
soldier  to  the  people,  who  readily  assembled  at  her  suggestion. 
She  thus  stimulated  energies  that  might  otherwise  have  flagged, 
and  helped  to  swell  the  supplies  continually  pouring  in  to  the 
depots  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  But  Miss  Gilson's  crowning 
work  was  performed  during  that  last  protracted  campaign  of 
General  Grant  from  the  Rapidan  to  Petersburg  and  the  Appo- 
mattox,  a  campaign  which  by  almost  a  year  of  constant  fighting- 
finished  the  most  terrible  and  destructive  war  of  modern  times. 
She  had  taken  the  field  with  Mr.  Fay  at  the  very  commence 
ment  of  the  campaign,  and  had  been  indefatigable  in  her  efforts 
to  relieve  what  she  could  of  the  fearful  suffering  of  those  de 
structive  battles  of  May,  1864,  in  which  the  dead  and  wounded 
were  numbered  by  scores  of  thousands.  To  how  many  poor 
sufferers  she  brought  relief  from  the  raging  thirst  and  the  racking 
agony  of  their  wounds,  to  how  many  aching  hearts  her  words  of 
cheer  and  her  sweet  songs  bore  comfort  and  hope,  to  how  many 
of  those  on  whose  countenances  the  Angel  of  death  had  already 
set  his  seal,  she  whispered  of  a  dying  and  risen  Saviour,  and  of 
the  mansions  prepared  for  them  that  love  him,  will  never  be 
known  till  the  judgment  of  the  great  day ;  but  this  we  know, 
that  thousands  now  living  speak  with  an  almost  rapturous  enthu 
siasm,  of  "  the  little  lady  who  in  their  hours  of  agony,  ministered 
to  them  with  such  sweetness,  and  never  seemed  to  weary  of 
serving  them." 

A  young  physician  in  the  service  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
Dr.  William  Howell  Reed,  who  was  afterwards  for  many  months 
associated  with  her  and  Mr.  Fay  in  their  labors  of  auxiliary  relief, 
thus  describes  his  first  opportunity  of  observing  her  work.  It 
was  at  Fredericksburg  in  May,  1864,  when  that  town  was  for  a 
time  the  base  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  place  to  which 
the  wounded  were  brought  for  treatment  before  being  sent  to  the 
hospitals  at  Washington  and  Baltimore.  The  building  used  as  a 
hospital,  and  which  she  visited  was  the  mansion  of  John  L.  Marie, 


HELEN   LOUISE   GILSON.  139 

a  large  building,  but  much  of  it  in  ruins  from  the  previous  bom 
bardment  of  the  city.  It  was  crowded  with  wounded  in  every 
part.  Dr.  Reed  says: — 

"  "One  afternoon,  just  before  the  evacuation,  when  the  atmos 
phere  of  our  rooms  was  close  and  foul,  and  all  were  longing  for  a 
breath  of  our  cooler  northern  air,  while  the  men  were  moaning  in 
pain,  or  were  restless  with  fever,  and  our  hearts  were  sick  with 
pity  for  the  sufferers,  I  heard  a  light  step  upon  the  stairs;  and 
looking  up  I  saw  a  young  lady  enter,  who  brought  with  her  such 
an  atmosphere  of  calm  and  cheerful  courage,  so  much  freshness, 
such  an  expression  of  gentle,  womanly  sympathy,  that  her  mere 
presence  seemed  to  revive  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  men,  and  to 
give  a  new  power  of  endurance  through  the  long  and  painful 
hours  of  suffering.  First  with  one,  then  at  the  side  of  another, 
a  friendly  word  here,  a  gentle  nod  and  smile  there,  a  tender  sym 
pathy  with  each  prostrate  sufferer,  a  sympathy  which  could  read 
in  his  eyes  his  longing  for  home  love,  and  for  the  presence  of 
some  absent  one — in  those  few  minutes  hers  was  indeed  an  angel 
ministry.  Before  she  left  the  room  she  sang  to  them,  first  some 
stirring  national  melody,  then  some  sweet  or  plaintive  hymn  to 
strengthen  the  fainting  heart;  and  I  remember  how  the  notes 
penetrated  to  every  part  of  the  building.  Soldiers  with  less 
severe  wounds,  from  the  rooms  above,  began  to  crawl  out  into  the 
entries,  and  men  from  below  crept  up  on  their  hands  and  knees, 
to  catch  every  note,  and  to  receive  of  the  benediction  of  her 
presence — for  such  it  was  to  them.  Then  she  went  away.  I  did 
not  know  who  she  was,  but  I  was  as  much  moved  and  melted  as 
any  soldier  of  them  all.  This  is  my  first  reminiscence  of  Helen 
L.  Gilson." 

Thus  far  Miss  Gilson's  cares  and  labors  had  been  bestowed 
almost  exclusively  on  the  white  soldiers;  but  the  time  approached 
when  she  was  to  devote  herself  to  the  work  of  creating  a  model 
hospital  for  the  colored  soldiers  who  now  formed  a  considerable 
body  of  troops  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  She  was  deeply 


140 

interested  in  the  struggle  of  the  African  race  upward  into  the 
new  life  which  seemed  opening  for  them,  and  her  efforts  for  the 
mental  and  moral  elevation  of  the  freedmen  and  their  families 
were  eminently  deserving  of  record. 

Dr.  Reed  relates  how,  as  they  were  passing  down  the  Rappa- 
hannock  and  up  the  York  and  Pamunky  rivers  to  the  new  tem 
porary  base  of  the  army  at  Port  Royal,  they  found  a  govern 
ment  barge  which  had  been  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  "  con 
trabands,"  of  whom  about  a  thousand  were  stowed  away  upon  it, 
of  all  ages  and  both  sexes,  all  escaped  from  their  former  masters 
in  that  part  of  Virginia.  The  hospital  party  heard  them  singing 
the  negroes'  evening  hymn,  and  taking  a  boat  from  the  steamer 
rowed  to  the  barge,  and  after  a  little  conversation  persuaded  them 
to  renew  their  song,  which  was  delivered  with  all  the  fervor, 
emotion  and  abandon  of  the  negro  character. 

When  their  song  had  ceased,  Miss  Gilson  addressed  them.  She 
pictured  the  reality  of  freedom,  told  them  what  it  meant  and  what 
they  would  have  to  do,  no  longer  would  there  be  a  master  to  deal 
out  the  peck  of  corn,  no  longer  a  mistress  to  care  for  the  old 
people  or  the  children.  They  were  to  work  for  themselves, 
provide  for  their  own  sick,  and  support  their  own  infirm;  but  all 
this  was  to  be  done  under  new  conditions.  No  overseer  was  to 
stand  over  them  with  the  whip,  for  their  new  master  was  the 
necessity  of  earning  their  daily  bread.  Very  soon  new  and  higher 
motives  would  come;  fresh  encouragements,  a  nobler  ambition, 
would  grow  into  their  new  condition.  Then  in  the  simplest 
language  she  explained  the  difference  between  their  former  rela 
tions  with  the  then  master  and  their  new  relations  with  the  north 
ern  people,  showing  that  labor  here  was  voluntary,  and  that  they 
could  only  expect  to  secure  kind  employers  by  faithfully  doing 
all  they  had  to  do.  Then,  enforcing  truthfulness,  neatness,  and 
economy,  she  said, — 

"  You  know  that  the  Lord  Jesus  died  and  rose  again  for  you. 
You  love  to  sing  his  praise  and  to  draw  near  to  him  in  prayer. 


HELEN    LOUISE    GILSON.  141 

But  remember  that  this  is  not  all  of  religion.  You  must  do 
right  as  well  as  pray  right.  Your  lives  must  be  full  of  kind 
deeds  towards  each  other,  full  of  gentle  and  loving  affections,  full 
of  unselfishness  and  truth :  this  is  true  piety.  You  must'  make 
Monday  and  Tuesday  just  as  good  and  pure  as  Sunday  is,  remem 
bering  that  God  looks  not  only  at  your  prayers  and  your  emotions, 
but  at  the  way  you  live,  and  speak,  and  act,  every  hour  of  your 
lives." 

Then  she  sang  Whittier's  exquisite  hymn : — 

"O,  praise  an'  tanks, — the  Lord  he  come 

To  set  de  people  free; 
An'  massa  tink  it  day  ob  doom, 

An'  we  ob  jubilee. 
De  Lord  dat  heap  de  Ked  Sea  wabes, 

He  just  as  'trong  as  den ; 
He  say  de  word,  we  last  night  slabes, 

To-day  de  Lord's  free  men." 

Here  were  a  thousand  people  breathing  their  first  free  air. 
They  were  new  born  Avith  this  delicious  sense  of  freedom.  They 
listened  with  moistened  eyes  to  every  word  which  concerned  their 
future,  and  felt  that  its  utterance  came  from  a  heart  which  could 
embrace  them  all  in  its  sympathies.  Life  was  to  them  a  jubilee 
only  so  far  as  they  could  make  it  so  by  a  consciousness  of  duty 
faithfully  done.  They  had  hard  work  before  them,  much  priva 
tion,  many  struggles.  They  had  everything  to  learn — the  new 
industries  of  the  North,  their  changed  social  condition,  and  how 
to  accept  their  new  responsibilities. 

As  she  spoke  the  circle  grew  larger,  and  they  pressed  round 
her  more  eagerly.  It  was  all  a  part  of  their  new  life.  They 
welcomed  it;  and,  by  every  possible  expression  of  gratitude  to 
her,  they  showed  how  desirous  they  were  to  learn.  Those  who 
were  present  can  never  forget  the  scene — a  thousand  dusky  faces, 
expressive  of  such  fervency  and  enthusiasm,  their  large  eyes  filled 
with  tears,  answering  to  the  throbbing  heart  below,  all  dim  y  out- 


142 

lined  by  the  flickering  rays  of  a  single  lamp.  And  when  it  was 
over,  we  felt  that  we  could  understand  our  relations  to  them,  and 
the  new  duties  which  this  great  hour  had  brought  upon  us. 

It  Avas  not  till  the  sanguinary  battles  of  the  15th,  16th,  17th, 
and  18th  of  June,  1864,  that  there  had  been  any  considerable 
number  of  the  colored  troops  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  wounded. 
In  those  engagements  however,  as  well  as  in  the  subsequent  ones 
of  the  explosion  of  the  mine,  and  the  actions  immediately  around 
Petersburg,  they  suffered  terribly.  The  wounded  were  brought 
rapidly  to  City  Point,  where  a  temporary  hospital  had  been  pro 
vided.  We  give  a  description  of  this  hospital  in  the  words  of 
Dr.  Reed,  who  was  associated  subsequently  with  Miss  Gilson  in 
its  management. 

"  It  was,  in  no  other  sense  a  hospital,  than  that  it  was  a  depot 
for  wounded  men.  There  were  defective  management  and  chaotic 
confusion.  The  men  were  neglected,  the  hospital  organization 
was  imperfect,  and  the  mortality  was  in  consequence  frightfully 
large.  Their  condition  was  horrible.  The  severity  of  the  cam 
paign  in  a  malarious  country  had  prostrated  many  with  fevers, 
and  typhoid,  in  its  most  malignant  forms,  was  raging  with  increas 
ing  fatality. 

"  These  stories  of  suffering  reached  Miss  Gilson  at  a  moment 
when  the  previous  labors  of  the  campaign  had  nearly  exhausted 
her  strength;  but  her  duty  seemed  plain.  There  were  no  volun 
teers  for  the  emergency,  and  she  prepared  to  go.  Her  friends 
declared  that  she  could  not  survive  it;  but  replying  that  she 
could  not  die  in  a  cause  more  sacred,  she  started  out  alone.  A 
hospital  was  to  be  created,  and  this  required  all  the  tact,  finesse, 
and  diplomacy  of  which  a  woman  is  capable.  Official  prejudice 
and  professional  pride  was  to  be  met  and  overcome.  A  new 
policy  was  to  be  introduced,  and  it  was  to  be  done  without  seem 
ing  to  interfere.  Her  doctrine  and  practice  always  were  instant, 
silent,  and  cheerful  obedience  to  medical  and  disciplinary  orders, 


HELEN    LOUISE    GILSON.  143 

without  any  qualification  whatever;  and  by  this  she  overcame  the 
natural  sensitiveness  of  the  medical  authorities. 

"A  hospital  kitchen  was  to  be  organized  upon  her  method  of 
special  diet;  nurses  were  to  learn  her  way,  and  be  educated  to 
their  duties;  while  cleanliness,  order,  system,  were  to  be  enforced 
in  the  daily  routine.  Moving  quietly  on  with  her  work  of  reno 
vation,  she  took  the  responsibility  of  all  changes  that  became 
necessary;  and  such  harmony  prevailed  in  the  camp  that  her 
policy  was  vindicated  as  time  rolled  on.  The  rate  of  mortality 
was  lessened,  and  the  hospital  was  soon  considered  the  best  in  the 
department.  This  was  accomplished  by  a  tact  and  energy  which 
sought  no  praise,  but  modestly  veiled  themselves  behind  the 
orders  of  officials.  The  management  of  her  kitchen  was  like  the 
ticking  of  a  clock — regular  discipline,  gentle  firmness,  and  sweet 
temper  always.  The  diet  for  the  men  was  changed  three  times  a 
day ;  and  it  was  her  aim  to  cater  as  far  as  possible  to  the  appe 
tites  of  individual  men.  Her  daily  rounds  in  the  wards  brought 
her  into  personal  intercourse  with  every  patient,  and  she  knew 
his  special  need.  At  one  time,  when  nine  hundred  men  were 
supplied  from  her  kitchen  (with  seven  hundred  rations  daily),  I 
took  down  her  diet  list  for  one  dinner,  and  give  it  here  in  a  note,* 
to  show  the  variety  of  the  articles,  and  her  careful  consideration 
of  the  condition  of  separate  men." 


*  "  List  of  rations  in  the  Colored  Hospital  at  City  Point,  being  a  dinner  on 
Wednesday,  April  25th,  1865: — 

Roast  Beef,  Tomatoes, 

Shad,  Tea, 

Veal  Broth,  Coffee, 

Stewed  Oysters,  Toast, 

Beef  Tea,  Gruel, 

Mashed  Potatoes,  Scalded  Milk, 

Lemonade,  Crackers  and  Sherry  Cobbler, 

Apple  Jelly,  Koast  Apple. 

Farina  Pudding, 
Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  this  was  an  ordinary  hospital  diet.     Although 


144  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

The  following  passage  from  the  pen  of  Harriet  Martineau,  in 
regard  to  the  management  of  the  kitchen  at  Scutari,  by  Florence 
Nightingale,  is  true  also  of  those  organized  by  Miss  Gilson  in 
Virginia.  The  parallel  is  so  close,  and  the  illustration  of  the 
daily  administration  of  this  department  of  her  work  so  vivid,  that, 
if  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  written  were  not  known, 
I  should  have  said  it  was  a  faithful  picture  of  our  kitchen  in  the 
Colored  Hospital  at  City  Point: — 

"  The  very  idea  of  that  kitchen  was  savory  in  the  wards ;  for 
out  of  it  came,  at  the  right  moment,  arrowroot,  hot  and  of  the 
pleasantest  consistence;  rice  puddings,  neither  hard  on  the  one 
hand  or  clammy  on  the  other;  cool  lemonade  for  the  feverish; 
cans  full  of  hot  tea  for  the  weary,  and  good  coffee  for  the  faint. 
When  the  sinking  sufferer  was  lying  with  closed  eyes,  too  feeble 
to  make  moan  or  sigh,  the  hospital  spoon  was  put  between  his 
lips,  with  the  mouthful  of  strong  broth  or  hot  wine,  which  rallied 
him  till  the  watchful  nurse  came  round  again.  The  meat  from 
that  kitchen  was  tenderer  than  any  other,  the  beef  tea  was  more 
savory.  One  thing  that  came  out  of  it  was  the  lesson  on  the 
saving  of  good  cookery.  The  mere  circumstance  of  the  boiling 
water  being  really  boiling  there,  made  a  difference  of  two  ounces 
of  rice  in  every  four  puddings,  and  of  more  than  half  the  arrow 
root  used.  The  same  quantity  of  arrowroot  which  made  a  pint 
thin  and  poor  in  the  general  kitchen,  made  two  pints  thick  and 
good  in  Miss  Nightingale's. 

"Again,  in  contrasting  the  general  kitchen  with  the  light  or 
special  diet  prepared  for  the  sicker  men,  there  was  all  the  differ 
ence  between  having  placed  before  them  'the  cold  mutton  chop 
with  its  opaque  fat,  the  beef  with  its  caked  gravy,  the  arrowroot 
stiff  and  glazed,  all  untouched,  as  might  be  seen  by  the  bed-sides 

such  a  list  was  furnished  at  this  time,  yet  it  was  only  possible  while  the  hos 
pital  had  an  ample  base,  like  City  Point.  The  armies,  when  operating  at  a 
distance,  could  give  but  two  or  three  articles ;  and  in  active  campaigns  these 
were  furnished  with  great  irregularity." 


HEEEN    LOUISE    GILSON.  145 

in  the  afternoons,  while  the  patients  were  lying  back,  sinking  for 
want  of  support/  and  seeing  '  the  quick  and  quiet  nurses  enter 
as  the  clock  struck,  with  their  hot  water  tins,  hot  morsels  ready 
cut,  bright  knife,  and  fork,  and  spoon, — and  all  ready  for  instant 
eating !' 

"  The  nurses  looked  for  Miss  Gilson's  word  of  praise,  and  labored 
for  it;  and  she  had  only  to  suggest  a  variety  in  the  decoration  of 
the  tents  to  stimulate  a  most  honorable  rivalry  among  them, 
which  soon  opened  a  wide  field  for  displaying  ingenuity  and 
taste,  so  that  not  only  was  its  standard  the  highest,  but  it  was  the 
most  cheerfully  picturesque  hospital  at  City  Point. 

"This  colored  hospital  service  was  one  of  those  extraordinary 
tasks,  out  of  the  ordinary  course  of  army  hospital  discipline,  that 
none  but  a  woman  could  execute.  It  required  more  than  a  man's 
power  of  endurance,  for  men  fainted  and  fell  under  the  burden. 
It  required  a  woman's  discernment,  a  woman's  tenderness,  a 
woman's  delicacy  and  tact ;  it  required  such  nerve  and  moral  force, 
and  such  executive  power,  as  are  rarely  united  in  any  woman's 
character.  The  simple  grace  with  which  she  moved  about  the 
hospital  camps,  the  gentle  dignity  with  which  she  ministered  to 
the  suffering  about  her,  won  all  hearts.  As  she  passed  through 
the  wards,  the  men  would  follow  her  with  their  eyes,  attracted  by 
the  grave  sweetness  of  her  manner ;  and  when  she  stopped  by 
some  bed-side,  and  laid  her  hand  upon  the  forehead  and  smoothed 
the  hair  of  a  soldier,  speaking  some  cheering,  pleasant  word,  I 
have  seen  the  tears  gather  in  his  eyes,  and  his  lips  quiver,  as  he 
tried  to  speak  or  to  touch  the  fold  of  her  dress,  as  if  appealing  to 
her  to  listen,  while  he  opened  his  heart  about  the  mother,  wife,  or 
sister  far  away.  I  have  seen  her  in  her  sober  gray  flannel  gown, 
sitting  motionless  by  the  dim  candle-light, — which  was  all  our 
camp  could  afford, — with  her  eyes  open  and  watchful,  and  her 
hands  ever  ready  for  all  those  endless  wants  of  sickness  at  night, 
especially  sickness  that  may  be  tended  unto  death,  or  unto  the 
awful  struggle  between  life  and  death,  which  it  was  the  lot  of 

19 


146  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

nearly  all  of  us  at  some  time  to  keep  watch  over  until  the  danger 
had  gone  by.  And  in  sadder  trials,  when  the  life  of  a  soldier 
whom  she  had  watched  and  ministered  to  was  trembling  in  the 
balance  between  earth  and  heaven,  waiting  for  Him  to  make  all 
things  new,  she  has  seemed,  by  some  special  grace  of  the  Spirit,  to 
reach  the  living  Christ,  and  draw  a  blessing  down  as  the  shining 
way  was  opened  to  the  tomb.  And  I  have  seen  such  looks  of 
gratitude  from  weary  eyes,  now  brightened  by  visions  of  heavenly 
glory,  the  last  of  many  recognitions  of  her  ministry.  Absorbed 
in  her  work,  unconscious  of  the  spiritual  beauty  which  invested 
her  daily  life, — whether  in  her  kitchen,  in  the  heat  and  over 
crowding  incident  to  the  issues  of  a  large  special  diet  list,  or  sitting 
at  the  cot  of  some  poor  lonely  soldier,  whispering  of  the  higher 
realities  of  another  world, — she  was  always  the  same  presence  of 
grace  and  love,  of  peace  and  benediction.  I  have  been  with  her 
in  the  wards  when  the  men  have  craved  some  simple  religious 
services, — the  reading  of  Scripture,  the  repetition  of  a  psalm,  the 
singing  of  a  hymn,  or  the  offering  of  a  prayer, — and  invariably 
the  men  were  melted  to  tears  by  the  touching  simplicity  of  her 
eloquence. 

"  These  were  the  tokens  of  her  ministry  among  the  sickest  men; 
but  it  was  not  here  alone  that  her  influence  was  felt  in  the  hos 
pital.  Was  there  jealousy  in  the  kitchen,  her  quick  penetration 
detected  the  cause,  and  in  her  gentle  way  harmony  was  restored ; 
was  there  profanity  among  the  convalescents,  her  daily  presence 
and  kindly  admonition  or  reproof,  with  an  occasional  glance 
which  spoke  her  sorrow  for  such  sin,  were  enough  to  check  the 
evil;  or  was  there  hardship  or  discontent,  the  knowledge  that  she 
was  sharing  the  discomfort  too,  was  enough  to  compel  patient 
endurance  until  a  remedy  could  be  provided.  And  so,  through 
all  the  war,  from  the  seven  days'  conflict  upon  the  Peninsula,  in 
those  early  July  days  of  1862,  through  the  campaigns  of  Antietam 
and  Fredericksburg,  of  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg,  and  after 
the  conflicts  of  the  Wilderness,  and  the  fierce  and  undecided 


HELEX    LOUISE    GILSON.  147 

battles  which  were  fought  for  the  possession  of  Richmond  and 
Petersburg,  in  1864  and  1865,  she  labored  steadfastly  on  until 
the  end.  Through  scorching  heat  and  pinching  cold,  in  the  tent 
or  upon  the  open  field,  in  the  ambulance  or  on  the  saddle,  through 
rain  and  snow,  amid  unseen  perils  of  the  enemy,  under  fire  upon 
the  field,  or  in  the  more  insidious  dangers  of  contagion,  she  worked 
quietly  on,  doing  her  simple  part  with  all  womanly  tact  and  skill, 
until  now  the  hospital  dress  is  laid  aside,  and  she  rests,  with  the 
sense  of  a  noble  work  done,  and  with  the  blessings  and  prayers  of 
the  thousands  whose  sufferings  she  has  relieved,  or  whose  lives  she 
has  saved." 

Amid  all  these  labors,  Miss  Gilson  found  time  and  opportunity 
to  care  for  the  poor  negro  washerwomen  and  their  families,  who 
doing  the  washing  of  the  hospital  were  allowed  rations  and  a  rude 
shelter  by  the  government  in  a  camp  near  the  hospital  grounds. 
Finding  that  they  were  suffering  from  overcrowding,  privation, 
neglect,  and  sickness,  she  procured  the  erection  of  comfortable 
huts  for  them,  obtained  clothing  from  the  North  for  the  more 
destitute,  and  by  example  and  precept  encouraged  them  in  habits 
of  neatness  and  order,  while  she  also  inculcated  practical  godli 
ness  in  all  their  life.  In  a  short  time  from  one  of  the  most  mise 
rable  this  became  the  best  of  the  Freedmen's  camps. 

As  was  the  case  with  nearly  every  woman  who  entered  the 
service  at  the  seat  of  war,  Miss  Gilson  suffered  from  malarious 
fever.  As  often  as  possible  she  returned  to  her  home  for  a  brief 
space,  to  recruit  her  wasted  energies,  and  it  was  those  brief  inter 
vals  of  rest  which  enabled  her  to  remain  at  her  post  until  several 
months  after  the  surrender  of  Lee  virtually  ended  the  war. 

She  left  Richmond  in  July,  1865,  and  spent  the  remainder  of 
the  summer  in  a  quiet  retreat  upon  Long  Island,  where  she  par 
tially  recovered  her  impaired  health,  and  in  the  autumn  returned 
to  her  home  in  Chelsea. 

In  person  Miss  Gilson  is  small  and  delicately  proportioned. 
Without  being  technically  beautiful,  her  features  are  lovely  both 


148 

in  form  and  expression,  and  though  now  nearly  thirty  years  of  age 
she  looks  much  younger  than  she  actually  is.  Her  voice  is  low 
and  soft,  and  her  speech  gentle  and  deliberate.  Her  movements 
correspond  in  exact  harmony  with  voice  and  speech.  But,  under 
the  softness  and  gentleness  of  her  external  demeanor,  one  soon 
detects  a  firmness  of  determination,  and  a  fixedness  of  will.  No 
doubt,  once  determined  upon  the  duty  and  propriety  of  any 
course,  she  will  pursue  it  calmly  and  persistently  to  the  end.  It 
is  to  these  qualifications,  and  physical  and  moral  traits,  that  she 
owes  the  undoubted  power  and  influence  exercised  in  her  late 
mission. 


MRS.    JOHN    HARRIS. 


E  would  have  been  a  man  of  uncommon  sagacity  and 
penetration,  who  in  the  beginning  of  1861,  should  have 
chosen  Mrs.  Harris  as  capable  of  the  great  services  and 
the  extraordinary  power  of  endurance  with  which  her 
name  has  since  been  identified.  A  pale,  quiet,  delicate  woman, 
often  an  invalid  for  months,  and  almost  always  a  sufferer ;  the 
wife  of  a  somewhat  eminent  physician,  in  Philadelphia,  and  in 
circumstances  which  did  not  require  constant  activity  for  her  live 
lihood,  refined,  educated,  and  shrinking  from  all  rough  or  brutal 
sights  or  sounds,  she  seemed  one  of  those  who  were  least  fitted 
to  endure  the  hardships,  and  encounter  the  roughnesses  of  a  life 
in  the  camp  or  field  hospitals. 

But  beneath  that  quiet  and  frail  exterior,  there  dwelt  a  firm 
and  dauntless  spirit.  She  had  been  known  by  her  neighbors,  and 
especially  in  the  church  of  which  she  was  an  honored  member, 
as  a  woman  of  remarkable  piety  and  devotion,  and  as  an  excel 
lent  and  skilful  attendant  upon  the  sick.  When  the  war  com 
menced,  she  was  one  of  the  ladies  who  assembled  to  form  the 
Ladies7  Aid  Society  of  Philadelphia,  and  was  chosen,  we  believe 
unanimously,  Corresponding  Secretary.  She  seems  to  have  en 
tered  upon  the  work  from  the  feeling  that  it  was  a  part  of  her 
duty,  a  sacrifice  she  was  called  to  make,  a  burden  which  she 
ought  to  bear.  And  through  the  war,  mainly  from  her  tempera 
ment,  which  inclined  her  to  look  on  the  dark  side,  she  never 
seemed  stimulated  or  strengthened  in  her  work  by  that  abiding 

149 


150 

conviction  of  the  final  success  of  our  arms,  which  was  to  so  many 
of  the  patient  workers,  the  day-star  of  hope.  Like  Banyan's 
Master  Fearing,  she  was  always  apprehensive  of  defeat  and  dis 
aster,  of  the  triumph  of  the  adversary ;  and  when  victories  came, 
her  eyes  were  so  dim  with  tears  for  the  bereaved  and  sorrow- 
strieken,  and  her  heart  so  heavy  with  their  griefs  that  she  could 
not  join  in  the  songs  of  triumph,  or  smile  in  unison  with  the  na 
tion's  rejoicings.  We  speak  of  this  not  to  depreciate  her  work  or 
zeal,  but  rather  to  do  the  more  honor  to  both.  The  despondent 
temperament  and  the  intense  sympathy  with  sorrow  were  consti 
tutional,  or  the  result  of  years  of  ill-health,  and  that  under  their 
depressing  influence,  with  no  step  of  her  way  lighted  with  the 
sunshine  of  joy,  she  should  have  not  only  continued  faithful  to 
her  work,  but  have  undergone  more  hardships  and  accomplished 
more,  for  the  soldiers  than  most  others,  reflects  the  highest  credit 
upon  her  patience,  perseverance  and  devotion  to  the  cause. 

We  have  elsewhere  in  this  volume  given  an  account  of  the 
origin  and  progress  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  of  Philadelphia. 
Mrs.  Harris,  though  continued  as  its  Corresponding  Secretary 
through  the  war,  was,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  its 
correspondent  in  the  field,  and  left  to  the  other  officers,  the  work 
of  raising  and  forwarding  the  money  and  supplies,  while  she  at 
tended  in  person  to  their  distribution.  This  division  of  labor 
seems  to  have  satisfied  her  associates,  who  forwarded  tp  her  order 
their  hospital  stores  and  money  with  the  most  perfect  confidence 
in  her  judicious  disposition  of  both.  Other  Societies,  such  as 
the  Penn  Eelief,  the  Patriotic  Daughters  of  Lancaster,  and  Aid 
Societies  from  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  the  Chris 
tian  and  Sanitary  Commissions,  made  her  their  almoners,  and  she 
distributed  a  larger  amount  of  stores,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
lady  in  the  field. 

The  history  of  her  work  during  the  war,  is  given  very  fully, 
in  her  correspondence  with  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society,  published  in 
their  semi-annual  reports.  From  these  we  gather  that  she  had 


MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS.  151 

visited  in  1861,  and  the  winter  of  1862,  before  the  movement  of 
the  army  to  the  peninsula,  more  than  one  hundred  hospitals  of 
the  army  of  the  Potomac,  in  and  around  Washington,  and  had 
not  only  ministered  to  the  physical  wants  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
men,  but  had  imparted  religious  instruction  and  consolation  to 
many  of  them.  Everywhere  her  coming  had  been  welcomed ; 
in  many  instances,  eyes  dimmed  by  the  shadow  of  the  wings  of 
the  death-angel,  saw  in  her  the  wife  or  mother,  for  whose  coming 
they  had  longed  and  died,  with  the  hallowed  word  "mother"  on 
their  lips. 

When  in  the  spring  of  1862,  the  army  of  the  Potomac  moved 
to  the  Peninsula,  Mrs.  Harris  went  thither,  first  distributing  as 
far  as  practicable,  her  stores  among  the  men.  Soon  after  her  ar 
rival  on  the  Peninsula,  she  found  ample  employment  for  her  time. 
The  Chesapeake  and  Hygeia  hospitals  at  Fortress  Monroe,  filled 
at  first  mostly  with  the  sick,  and  the  few  wounded  in  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  were,  after  the  battles  of  Williamsburg  and  West 
Point  crowded  with  such  of  the  wounded,  both  Union  and  Con 
federate  soldiers  as  could  be  brought  so  far  from  the  battle-fields. 
She  spent  two  or  three  weeks  here,  aiding  the  noble  women  who 
were  acting  as  Matrons  of  these  hospitals.  From  thence  she  went 
on  board  the  Vanderbilt,  then  just  taken  as  a  Government  Trans 
port  for  the  wounded  from  the  bloody  field  of  Fair  Oaks. 

She  thus  describes  the  scene  and  her  work : 

"There  were  eight  hundred  on  board.  Passage-ways,  state-rooms,  floors 
from  the  dark  and  foetid  hold  to  the  hurricane  deck,  were  all  more  than  filled ; 
some  on  mattresses,  some  on  blankets,  others  on  straw;  some  in  the  death- 
struggle,  others  n earing  it,  some  already  beyond  human  sympathy  and  help ; 
some  in  their  blood  as  they  had  been  brought  from  the  battle-field  of  the  Sab 
bath  previous,  and  all  hungry  and  thirsty,  not  having  had  anything  to  eat  or 
drink,  except  hard  crackers,  for  twenty-four  hours. 

"  The  gentlemen  who  came  on  with  us  hurried  on  to  the  White  House,  and 
would  have  had  us  go  with  them,  but  something  held  us  back ;  thank  God  it 
was  so.  Meeting  Dr.  Cuyler,  Medical  Director,  he  exclaimed,  '  Here  is  work 
for  you  I'  He,  poor  man,  was  completely  overwhelmed  with  the  general  care 
of  all  the  hospitals  at  Old  Point,  and  added  to  these,  these  mammoth  floating 


152  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

hospitals,  which  are  coming  in  from  day  to  day  with  their  precious  cargoes. 
Without  any  previous  notice,  they  anchor,  and  send  to  him  for  supplies,  which 
it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  improvise,  even  in  our  large  cities,  and  quite 
impossible  at  Old  Point.  '  No  bakeries,  no  stores,  except  small  sutlers.'  The 
bread  had  all  to  be  baked ;  the  boat  rationed  for  two  days ;  eight  hundred  on 
board. 

"  When  we  went  aboard,  the  first  cry  we  met  was  for  tea  and  bread.  '  For 
God's  sake,  give  us  bread,'  came  from  many  of  our  wounded  soldiers.  Others 
shot  in  the  face  or  neck,  begged  for  liquid  food.  With  feelings  of  a  mixed  cha 
racter,  shame,  indignation,  and  sorrow  blending,  we  turned  away  to  see  what 
resources  we  could  muster  to  meet  the  demand.  A  box  of  tea,  a  barrel  of  corn- 
meal,  sundry  parcels  of  dried  fruit,  a  few  crackers,  ginger  cakes,  dried  rusk, 
sundry  jars  of  jelly  and  of  pickles,  Avere  seized  upon,  soldiers  and  contrabands 
impressed  into  service,  all  the  cooking  arrangements  of  three  families  appro 
priated,  by  permission,  and  soon  three  pounds  of  tea  were  boiling,  and  many 
gallons  of  gruel  blubbering.  In  the  meantime,  all  the  bread  we  could  buy, 
twenty-five  loaves,  were  cut  into  slices  and  jellied,  pickles  were  got  in  readiness, 
and  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  we  were  back  to  our  poor  sufferers. 

"When  we  carried  in  bread,  hands  from  every  quarter  were  outstretched, 
and  the  cry,  '  Give  me  a  piece,  O  please !  I  have  had  nothing  since  Monday ;' 
another,  'Nothing  but  hard  crackers  since  the  fight/  etc.  When  we  had  dealt 
out  nearly  all  the  bread,  a  surgeon  came  in,  and  cried,  '  Do  please  keep  some 
for  the  poor  fellows  in  the  hold ;  they  are  so  badly  off  for  everything.'  So 
with  the  remnant  we  threaded  our  way  through  the  suffering  crowd,  amid  such 
exclamations  as  '  Oh  !  please  don't  touch  my  foot,'  or,  '  For  mercy's  sake,  don't 
touch  my  arm;'  another,  'Please  don't  move  the  blanket;  I  am  so  terribly  cut 
up,'  down  to  the  hold,  in  which  were  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty,  nearly 
all  sick,  some  very  sick.  It  was  like  plunging  into  a  vapor  bath,  so  hot,  close, 
and  full  of  moisture,  and  then  in  this  dismal  place,  we  distributed  our  bread, 
oranges,  and  pickles,  which  were  seized  upon  with  avidity.  And  here  let  me 
say,  at  least  twenty  of  them  told  us  next  day  that  the  pickles  had  done  them 
more  good  than  all  the  medicine  they  had  taken.  The  tea  was  carried  all 
around  in  buckets,  sweetened,  but  no  milk  in  it.  How  much  we  Avished  for 
some  concentrated  milk.  The  gruel,  into  which  AVC  had  put  a  goodly  quantity 
of  wine,  Avas  relished,  you  cannot  knoAv  IIOAV  much.  One  poor  wounded  boy, 
exhausted  with  the  loss  of  blood  and  long  fasting,  looked  up  after  taking  the 
first  nourishment  he  could  swallow  since  the  battle  of  Saturday,  then  four  days, 
and  exclaimed,  with  face  radiant  Avith  gratitude  and  pleasure,  'Oh !  that  is  life 
to  me ;  I  feel  as  if  twenty  years  ivere  given  me  to  live.'  He  was  shockingly 
wounded  about  the  neck  and  face,  and  could  only  take  liquid  food  from  a  feed 
ing-cup,  of  which  they  had  none  on  board.  We  left  them  four,  together  with  a 


MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS.  153 

number  of  tin  dishes,  spoons,  etc.  After  hours  spent  in  this  wa^  ,  we  returned 
to  the  Hygeia  Hospital,  stopping  on  our  way  to  stew  a  quantity  of  dried  fruit, 
which  served  for  supper,  reaching  the  Hygeia  wet  through  and  through,  every 
garment  saturated.  Disrobed,  and  bathing  with  bay  rum,  was  glad  to  lie  down, 
every  bone  aching,  and  head  and  heart  throbbing,  unwilling  to  cease  work 
where  so  much  was  to  be  done,  and  yet  wholly  unable  to  do  more.  There  I 
lay,  Avith  the  sick,  wounded,  and  dying  all  around,  and  slept  from  sheer  exhaus 
tion,  the  last  sounds  falling  upon  my  ear  being  groans  from  the  operating 
room." 

Her  ministrations  to  the  wounded  on  the  Vanderbilt  were 
unexpectedly  prolonged  by  the  inability  of  the  officers  to  get  the 
necessary  supplies  011  board,  but  two  days  after  she  was  on  the 
Knickerbocker,  a  Sanitary  Commission  Transport,  and  on  her 
way  to  White  House  Landing  where  in  company  with  Miss  Char 
lotte  Bradford,  she  spent  the  whole  night  on  the  Transport 
Louisiana,  dressing  and  caring  for  the  wounded.  When  she  left 
the  boat  at  eleven  o'clock  the  next  night  she  was  obliged  to  wash 
all  her  skirts  which  were  saturated  with  the  mingled  blood  of 
the  Union  and  Confederate  soldiers  which  covered  the  floor,  as 
she  kneeled  between  them  to  wash  their  faces.  She  had  torn  up 
all  her  spare  clothing  which  could  be  of  use  to  them  for  bandages 
and  compresses.  From  White  House  she  proceeded  to  the  battle 
ground  of  Fair  Oaks,  and  presently  pitched  her  tent  on  the 
Dudley  Farm,  near  Savage  Station,  to  be  near  the  group  of  field 
hospitals,  to  which  the  wounded  in  the  almost  daily  skirmishes 
and  the  sick  smitten  with  that  terrible  Chickahominy  fever 
were  sent. 

The  provision  made  by  the  Medical  Bureau  of  the  Govern 
ment  at  this  time  for  the  care  and  comfort  'of  the  wounded  and 
fever-stricken  was  small  and  often  inappropriate.  Where  tents 
were  provided,  they  were  either  of  the  wedge  pattern  or  the 
bivouacking  tent  of  black  cloth,  and  in  the  hot  sun  of  a  Virginia 
summer  absorbed  the  sun's  rays  till  they  were  like  ovens  ;  many 
of  the  sick  were  put  into  the  cabins  and  miserable  shanties  of  the 
vicinity,  and  not  unfrequently  in  the  attics  of  these,  where  amid 


154 

the  intense  heat  they  were  left  without  food  or  drink  except  when 
the  Sanitary  Commission's  agents  or  some  of  the  ladies  connected 
with  other  organizations,  like  Mrs.  Harris,  ministered  to  their 
necessities.  One  case  of  this  kind,  not  by  any  means  the  worst, 
but  told  with  a  simple  pathos  deserves  to  be  quoted : 

"  Passing  a  forlorn-looking  house,  we  were  told  by  a  sentinel  that  a  young 
Captain  of  a  Maine  regiment  laid  in  it  very  sick ;  we  went  in,  no  door  obstruct 
ing,  and  there  upon  a  stretcher  in  a  corner  of  the  room  opening  directly  upon 
the  road  lay  an  elegant-looking  youth  struggling  with  the  last  great  enemy. 
His  mind  wandered ;  and  as  we  approached  him  he  exclaimed :  '  Is  it  not  cruel 
to  keep  me  here  when  my  mother  and  sister,  whom  I  have  not  seen  for  a  year, 
are  in  the  next  room  ;  they  might  let  me  go  in  ?'  His  mind  continued  to  wan 
der  ;  only  for  an  instant  did  he  seem  to  have  a  glimpse  of  the  reality,  when  he 
drew  two  rings  from  his  finger,  placed  there  by  a  loving  mother  and  sister, 
handed  them  to  an  attendant,  saying:  'Carry  them  home,'  and  then  he  was 
amid  battle  scenes,  calling  out,  '  Deploy  to  the  left ;'  '  Keep  out  of  that  ambus 
cade  ;'  'Now  go,  my  braves,  double  quick,  and  strike  for  your  flag!  On,  on,' 
and  he  threw  up  his  arms  as  if  cheering  them,  'you'll  win  the  day ;'  and  so  he 
continued  to  talk,  whilst  death  was  doing  its  terrible  work.  As  we  looked  upon 
the  beautiful  face  and  manly  form,  and  thought  of  the  mother  and  sister  in 
their  distant  home,  surrounded  by  every  luxury  wealth  could  purchase,  worlds 
seemed  all  too  cheap  to  give  to  have  him  with  them.  But  this  could  not  be. 
The  soldier  of  three  battles,  he  was  not  willing  to  admit  that  he  was  sick  until 
his  strength  failed,  and  he  was  actually  dying.  He  was  carried  to  this  cheer 
less  room,  a  rude  table  the  only  furniture;  no  door,  no  window-shutters;  the 
western  sun  threw  its  hot  rays  in  upon  him, — no  cooling  shade  for  his  fevered 
brow :  and  so  he  lay  unconscious  of  the  monster's  grasp,  which  would  not  relax 
until  he  had  done  his  work.  His  last  expressions  told  of  interest  in  his  men. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  Waterville  College.  Twenty  of  his  company  graduated 
at  the  same  institution.  He  was  greatly  beloved;  his  death,  even  in  this  Gol 
gotha,  was  painfully  impressive.  There  was  no  time  to  talk  to  him  of  that 
spirit-land  upon  which  he  was  so  soon  to  enter.  Whispered  a  few  verses  of 
Scripture  into  his  ear ;  he  looked  with  a  sweet  smile  and  thanked  me,  but  his 
manner  betokened  no  appreciation  of  the  sacred  words.  He  was  an  only  son. 
His  mother  and  sister  doted  on  him.  He  had  everything  to  bind  him  to  life, 
but  the  mandate  had  gone  forth." 

Of  the  scenes  of  the  retreat  from  the  Chickahominy  to  Harri 
son's  Landing,  Mrs.  Harris  was  an  active  and  deeply  interested 


MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS.  155 

witness;  she  remained  at  Savage  Station  caring  for  the  wounded, 
for  some  time,  and  then  proceeded  to  Seven  Pines,  where  a  day 
Avas  passed  in  preparing  the  wounded  for  the  operations  deemed 
necessary,  obtaining,  at  great  personal  peril,  candles  to  light  the 
darkness  of  the  field  hospital,  and  was  sitting  down,  completely 
exhausted  with  her  trying  and  wearisome  labors,  when  an  army 
chaplain,  an  exception  it  is  to  be  hoped  to  most  of  his  profession, 
in  his  unwillingness  to  serve  the  wounded,  came  to  her  and  said, 
"They  have  just  brought  in  a  soldier  with  a  leg  blown  off;  he  is 
in  a  horrible  condition;  could  you  wash  him?"  Wearied  as  she 
was,  she  performed  the  duty  tenderly,  but  it  was  scarcely  finished 
when  death  claimed  him.  Her  escape  to  White  House,  and 
thence  to  Harrison's  Landing,  was  made  not  a  minute  too  soon; 
she  was  obliged  to  abandon  her  stores,  and  to  come  off  on  the 
steamer  in  a  borrowed  bonnet. 

At  this  trying  time,  her  constitutional  tendency  to  despondency 
took  full  possession  of  her.  "  The  heavens  are  filled  with  black 
ness/7  she  writes;  "I  find  myself  on  board  the  Nelly  Baker,  on 
my  way  to  City  Point,  with  supplies  for  our  poor  army,  if  we 
still  have  one;  I  am  not  always  hopeful,  you  see.  *  *  *  Alarm 
ing  accounts  come  to  us.  Prepare  for  the  worst,  but  hope  for  the 
best.  We  do  not  doubt  we  are  in  a  very  critical  condition,  out 
of  which  only  the  Most  High  can  bring  us."  This  is  not  the 
language  of  fear  or  cowardice.  There  was  no  disposition  011^  her 
part  to  seek  her  own  personal  safety,  but  while  she  despaired  of 
success,  she  was  ready  to  brave  any  danger  for  the  sake  of  the 
wounded  soldiers.  This  courage  in  the  midst  of  despair,  is  really 
greater  than  that  of  the  battle-field. 

The  months  of  July  and  August,  1862,  except  a  brief  visit 
home,  were  spent  at  Harrison's  Landing,  amid  the  scenes  of  dis 
tress,  disease,  wounds  and  suffering,  which  abounded  there.  The 
malaria  of  the  Chickahorniny  swamps  had  done  much  to  demora 
lize  the  finest  army  ever  put  into  the  field;  tens  of  thousands 
were  ill  with  it;  and  these,  with  the  hosts  of  wounded  accuniu- 


156  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

lated  more  rapidly  than  the  transports,  numerous  as  they  were, 
could  carry  them  away.  Their  condition  at  Harrison's  Landing 
was  pitiable;  the  medical  bureau  seemed  to  have  shared  in  the 
general  demoralization.  The  proper  diet,  the  necessary  hospital 
arrangements,  everything  required  for  the  soldiers'  restoration  to 
health,  was  wanting;  the  pasty,  adhesive  mud  was  everywhere,, 
and  the  hospital  tents,  old,  mildewed,  and  leaky,  were  pitched  in 
it,  and  no  floors  provided;  hard  tack,  salt  junk,  fat  salt  pork, 
and  cold,  greasy  bean  soup,  was  the  diet  provided  for  men  suffer 
ing  from  typhoid  fever,  and  from  wounds  which  rendered  liquid 
food  indispensable.  Soft  bread  was  promised,  but  was  not 
obtained  till  just  before  the  breaking  up  of  the  encampment. 
Nor  was  the  destitution  of  hospital  clothing  less  complete.  In 
that  disastrous  retreat  across  the  peninsula,  many  of  the  men  had 
lost  their  knapsacks;  the  government  did  not  provide  shirts, 
drawers,  undershirts,  as  well  as  mattresses,  sheets,  blankets, 
etc.,  in  anything  like  the  quantity  needed,  and  men  had  often 
lain  for  weeks  without  a  change  of  clothing,  in  the  mud  and 
filth.  So  far  as  a  few  zealous  workers  could  do  it,  Mrs.  Harris, 
and  her  willing  and  active  coadjutors  sought  to  remedy  these 
evils;  the  clothing,  and  the  more  palatable  and  appropriate  food 
they  could  and  did  provide  for  most  of  those  who  remained. 
Having  accomplished  all  for  these  which  she  could,  and  the  army 
having  left  the  James  River,  after  spending  a  few  days  at  the 
hospitals  near  Fortress  Monroe,  Mrs.  Harris  came  up  the  Poto 
mac  in  one  of  the  Government  transports,  reaching  Alexandria 
on  the  31st  of  August.  Here  she  found  ample  employment  in 
bestowing  her  tender  care  upon  the  thousands  of  wounded  from 
Pope's  campaigns. 

On  the  8th  of  September,  she  followed,  with  her  supplies,  the 
army  on  its  march  toward  South  Mountain  and  Antietam.  She 
reached  Antietam  the  day  after  the  battle,  and  from  that  time  till 
the  3rd  of  November,  aided  by  a  corps  of  most  devoted  and 
earnest  laborers  in  the  work  of  mercy,  among  whom  were  Mrs. 


MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS.  157 

M.  M.  Husband,  Miss  M.  M.  C.  Hall,  Mrs.  Mary  W.  Lee,  Miss 
Tyson,  and  others.  Mrs.  Harris  gave  herself  to  the  work  of 
caring  for  the  wounded.  Sad  were  the  sights  she  was  often 
called  to  witness.  She  bore  ample  testimony  to  the  patience  and 
the  uncomplaining  spirit  of  our  soldiers;  to  their  filial  devotion, 
to  the  deep  love  of  home,  and  the  dear  ones  left  behind,  which 
would  be  manifested  in  the  dying  hour,  by  brave,  noble-hearted 
men,  and  to  the  patriotism  which  even  in  the  death  agony,  made 
them  rejoice  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  their  country. 

Early  in  November,  1862,  Mrs.  Harris  left  Smoketown 
General  Hospital,  near  Antietam,  and  came  to  Washington.  In 
the  hospitals  in  and  around  that  city  thirty  thousand  sick  and 
wounded  men  were  lying,  some  of  them  well  and  tenderly  cared 
for,  some  like  those  in  the  Parole  and  Convalescent  Camps  near 
Alexandria,  (the  "Camp  Misery77  of  those  days),  suffering  from 
all  possible  privations.  She  did  all  that  she  could  to  supply  the 
more  pressing  needs  of  these  poor  men.  After  a  few  weeks  spent 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Capitol,  news  of  the  disastrous  battle  of 
Fredericksburg  came  to  Washington.  Though  deeply  depressed 
by  the  intelligence,  she  hastened  to  the  front  to  do  what  she 
could  for  the  thousands  of  sufferers.  From  this  time  till  about 
the  middle  of  June,  1863,  Mrs.  Harris  had  her  quarters  in  the 
Lacy  House,  Falmouth,  and  aided  by  Mrs.  Beck  and  Mrs.  Lee, 
worked  faithfully  for  the  soldiers,  taking  measures  to  relieve  and 
cure  the  ailing,  and  to  prevent  illness  from  the  long  and  severe 
exposures  to  which  the  troops  were  subject  on  picket  duty,  or 
special  marches,  through  that  stormy  and  inclement  winter. 
This  work  was  in  addition  to  that  in  the  camp  and  field  hospitals 
of  the  Sixth  Corps.  Another  part  of  her  work  and  one  of  special 
interest  and  usefulness,  was  the  daily  and  Sabbath  worship  at 
her  rooms,  in  which  such  of  the  soldiers  as  were  disposed,  par 
ticipated.  The  contrabands  were  also  the  objects  of  her  sym 
pathy  and  care,  and  she  assembled  them  for  religious  worship  and 
instruction  on  the  Sabbath. 


158 

But  the  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  was  approaching,  and  she 
went  forward  to  Harrisburg,  which  was  at  first  thought  to  be 
threatened,  on  the  25th  of  June.  After  two  or  three  days,  find 
ing  that  there  was  no  probability  of  an  immediate  battle  there, 
she  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  thence  to  Washington,  which 
she  reached  on  the  30th  of  June.  The  next  three  days  were 
spent  in  the  effort  to  forward  hospital  stores,  and  obtain  trans 
portation  to  Gettysburg.  The  War  Department  then,  as  in  most 
of  the  great  battles  previously,  refused  to  grant  this  privilege, 
and  though  she  sought  with  tears  and  her  utmost  powers  of  per 
suasion,  the  permission  to  forward  a  single  car-load  of  stores,  she 
was  denied,  even  on  the  3rd  of  July.  She  could  not  be 
restrained,  however,  from  going  where  she  felt  that  her  services 
would  be  imperatively  needed,  and  at  five  P.  M.,  of  the  3rd  of 
July,  she  left  Washington  carrying  only  some  chloroform  and  a 
few  stimulants,  reached  Westminster  at  four  A.  M.,  of  the  4th, 
and  was  carried  to  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg,  in  the  ambu 
lance  which  had  brought  the  wounded  General  Hancock  to 
Westminster.  The  next  week  was  spent  day  and  night  amid  the 
horrors  of  that  field  of  blood,  horrors  which  no  pen  can  describe. 
That  she  and  her  indefatigable  aid,  (this  time  a  young  lady  from 
Philadelphia),  were  able  to  alleviate  a  vast  amount  of  suffering, 
to  give  nourishment  to  many  who  were  famishing;  to  dress 
hundreds  of  wounds,  and  to  point  the  dying  sinner  to  the 
Saviour,  or  whisper  words  of  consolation  to  the  agonized  heart, 
was  certain.  On  the  night  of  the  10th  of  July,  Mrs.  Harris  and 
her  friend  Miss  B.  left  for  Frederick,  Maryland,  where  a  battle 
was  expected;  but  as  only  skirmishing  took  place,  they  kept  on 
to  Warrenton  and  Warrenton  Junction,  where  their  labors  were 
incessant  in  caring  for  the  great  numbers  of  wounded  and  sick 
in  the  hospitals.  Constant  labor  had  so  far  impaired  her  health, 
that  on  the  18th  of  August  she  attempted  to  get  away  from  her 
work  for  a  few  days  rest;  but  falling  in  with  the  sick  men  of  the 
Sixth  Michigan  Cavalry,  she  went  to  work  with  her  usual  zeal 


MRS.  JOHN    HARRIS.  159 

to  prepare  food  and  comforts  for  them,  and  when  they  were 
supplied  returned  to  her  work;  going  to  Cul pepper  Court  House, 
where  there  were  four  hospitals,  and  remaining  there  till  the  last 
of  September. 

The  severe  battle  of  Chickamauga,  occurring  on  the  19th  and 
20th  of  September,  roused  her  to  the  consciousness  of  the  great 
field  for  labor,  offered  by  the  Western  armies,  and  about  the  1st  of 
October,  she  went  to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  taking  her  friends  Miss 
Tyson  and  Mrs.  Beck  with  her.  It  was  her  intention  to  go  on 
to  Chattanooga,  but  she  found  it  impossible  at  that  time  to  pro 
cure  transportation,  and  she  and  her  friends  at  once  commenced 
work  among  the  refugees,  the  "  poor  white  trash/'  who  were  then 
crowding  into  Nashville.  For  a  month  and  more  they  labored 
zealously,  and  with  good  results,  among  these  poor,  ignorant,  but 
loyal  people,  and  then  Mrs.  Harris,  after  a  visit  to  Louisville  to 
provide  for  the  inmates  of  the  numerous  hospitals  in  Nashville,  a 
Thanksgiving  dinner,  pushed  forward  to  the  front,  reaching 
Bridgeport,  on  the  28th  of  November,  and  Chattanooga  the  next 
day.  Here  she  found  abundant  work,  but  her  protracted  labors 
had  overtasked  her  strength,  and  she  was  for  several  weeks  so  ill 
that  her  life  was  despaired  of.  She  was  unable  to  resume  her 
labors  until  the  latter  part  of  January,  1864,  and  then  she 
worked  with  a  will  for  the  half  starved  soldiers  in  the  hospitals, 
among  whom  scurvy  and  hospital  gangrene  were  prevailing. 
After  two  months  of  faithful  labor  among  these  poor  fellows,  she 
went  back  to  Nashville,  and  spent  four  or  five  months  more 
among  the  refugees.  She  returned  home  early  in  May,  1864, 
hoping  to  take  a  brief  period  of  rest,  of  which  she  was  in  great 
need ;  but  two  weeks  later,  she  was  in  Fredericksburg,  attending 
to  the  vast  numbers  of  wounded  brought  frorr  the  battles  of  the 
Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania,  and  followed  on  with  that  sad 
procession  of  the  wounded,  the  dead,  and  the  dying,  to  Port 
Royal,  White  House,  and  City  Point,  Never  had  been  there  so 
much  need  for  her  labors,  and  she  toiled  on,  though  suffering 


160 

from  constant  prostration  of  strength,  until  the  close  of  June, 
when  she  was  obliged  to  relinquish  labor  for  a  time,  and  restore 
the  almost  exhausted  vital  forces.  In  September,  she  was  again 
in  the  field,  this  time  with  the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah,  at  Win 
chester,  where  she  ministered  to  the  wounded  for  some  weeks. 
She  was  called  home  to  attend  her  mother  in  her  last  illness,  and 
for  three  or  four  months  devoted  herself  to  this  sacred  duty. 
Early  in  the  spring  of  1865,  she  visited  North  Carolina,  and  all 
the  sympathy  of  her  nature  was  called  out  in  behalf  of  the  poor 
released  prisoners  from  Andersonville  and  Salisbury,  to  whom 
she  ministered  with  her  usual  faithfulness.  At  the  close  of  the 
war,  she  returned  to  her  home,  more  an  invalid  than  ever  from 
the  effects  of  a  sun-stroke  received  while  in  attendance  on  a  field 
hospital  in  Virginia. 


MRS.    ELIZA    C.    PORTER. 


RS.  ELIZA  C.  PORTER,  the  subject  of  the  following 
sketch,  is  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Jeremiah  Porter,  a  Pres 
byterian  clergyman  of  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Of  all  the  noble  band  of  Western  women  who  dur 
ing  the  late  war  devoted  time,  thought,  and  untiring  exertions  to 
the  care  of  our  country's  defenders,  very  few,  if  any  are  more  worthy 
of  honorable  mention,  and  the  praise  of  a  grateful  nation,  than 
Mrs.  Porter.  Freely  she  gave  all,  withholding  not  even  the  most 
precious  of  her  possessions  and  efforts — her  husband,  her  sons, 
her  time  and  strength,  the  labor  of  hands  and  brain,  and,  above 
all,  her  prayers.  Few  indeed  at  a  time  when  sacrifices  were 
general,  and  among  the  women  of  our  country  the  rule  rather 
than  the  exception,  made  greater  sacrifices  than  she.  Her  home 
was  broken  up,  and  the  beloved  circle  scattered,  each  member  in 
his  or  her  own  appropriate  sphere,  actively  engaged  in  the  great 
work  which  the  war  unfolded. 

A  correspondent  thus  describes  Mrs.  Porter;  "Mrs.  Porter  is 
from  forty-five  to  fifty  years  of  age,  a  quiet,  modest,  lady-like 
woman,  very  gentle  in  her  manners,  and  admirably  qualified  to 
soothe,  comfort  and  care  for  the  sick  and  wounded."  But  this 
description,  by  no  means  includes,  or  does  justice  to  the  admi 
rable  fitness  for  the  work  which  her  labors  have  developed,  her 
quiet  energy,  her  great  executive  and  organizing  ability,  and  her 
tact  ever  displayed  in  doing  and  saying  the  right  thing  at  pre 
cisely  the  right  time.  Of  the  value  of  this  latter  qualification 

'21  161 


162  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

few  can  form  an  estimate  who  have  not  seen  excellent  and  praise 
worthy  exertions  so  often  wither  unfruitfully  for  the  lack  alone 
of  an  adjunct  so  nearly  indispensable. 

Mrs.  Porter  was  early  stimulated  to  exertion  and  sacrifice. 
In  the  spring  of  1861,  immediately  after  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war,  while  sitting  one  morning  at  her  breakfast  table,  her  hus 
band,  eldest  son  and  two  nephews  being  present,  she  exclaimed 
fervently;  "If  I  had  a  hundred  sons,  I  would  gladly  send  them 
all  forth  to  this  work  of  putting  down  the  rebellion." 

The  three  young  men  then  present  all  entered  the  army.  One 
of  them  after  three  years'  service  was  disabled  by  wounds  and 
constant  labor.  The  other  two  gave  themselves  anew  to  their 
country,  all  they  could  give. 

During  the  summer  of  1861  Mrs.  Porter  visited  Cairo  where 
hospitals  had  been  established,  and  in  her  labors  and  experiences 
there  carried  what  things  were  most  needed  by  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers.  In  October  of  that  year,  Illinois  was  first 
roused  to  co-operation  in  the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission. 
The  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission  was  established,  and  at 
the  request  of  Mr.  E.  W.  Blatchford  and  others,  Mrs.  Porter  was 
induced  to  take  charge  of  the  Commission  Rooms  which  were 
opened  in  Chicago.  Her  zeal  and  abilities,  as  well  as  the  hos 
pital  experiences  of  the  summer,  had  fitted  her  for  the  arduous 
task,  and  as  opening  to  her  a  field  of  great  usefulness,  she 
accepted  the  appointment.  How  she  devoted  herself  to  that 
work,  at  what  sacrifice  of  family  comfort,  and  with  what  success, 
is  well  known  to  the  Commission,  and  to  thousands  of  its  early 
contributors. 

In  April,  1862,  she  became  satisfied  that  she  could  be  more 
useful  in  the  field,  by  taking  good  nurses  to  the  army  hospitals, 
and  herself  laboring  with  them.  Her  husband,  who  the  previous 
winter  had  been  commissioned  as  Chaplain  of  the  First  Illinois 
Light  Artillery,  was  then  at  Cairo,  where  he  had  been  ordered 
to  laboi  in  hospitals;  and  Mrs.  Porter,  visiting  Cairo  and  Pa- 


MRS.  ELIZA    C.  PORTER.  163 

ducah,  entered  earnestly  into  the  work  of  placing  the  nurses  she 
had  brought  with  her  from  Chicago.  Some  of  these  devoted 
themselves  constantly  to  the  service,  and  proved  equally  suc 
cessful  and  valuable. 

At  Cairo,  Mrs.  Porter  made  the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Mary 
J.  Safford,  since  known  as  the  "  Cairo  Angel,"  and  co-operating 
with  her  there,  and  with  Mr.  Porter  and  various  surgeons  and 
philanthropists,  aided  in  receiving,  and  temporarily  caring  for 
seven  hundred  men  from  the  field  of  Pittsburgh  Landing,  and  in 
transferring  them  to  the  hospitals  of  Mound  City,  Illinois. 

From  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  ten  at  night,  Mrs. 
Porter  and  her  friends  labored,  and  then,  their  work  accomplished 
and  their  suffering  charges  made  as  comfortable  as  circumstances 
would  permit,  they  were  forced,  by  the  absence  of  hotel  accommo 
dations,  to  spend  the  night  upon  the  steamer  where  the  state 
rooms  being  occupied,  they  slept  upon  chairs. 

Soon  afterward  she  went,  accompanied  by  Miss  Safford,  to 
Pittsburgh  Landing.  There  she  obtained  from  the  Medical 
Director,  Dr.  Charles  McDougal,  an  order  for  several  female 
nurses  for  his  department.  She  hastened  to  Chicago,  secured 
them,  and  accompanying  them  to  Tennessee  placed  them  at 
Savannah  with  Mrs.  Mary  Bickerdyke,  wrho  had  been  with  the 
wounded  since  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  From  thence  she  went  to 
Corinth,  then  just  taken  by  General  Grant.  She  was  accompa 
nied  by  several  benevolent  ladies  from  Chicago,  like  herself  bent 
on  doing  good  to  the  sick  and  wounded.  At  Corinth  she  joined 
her  husband,  and  he  being  ordered  to  join  his  regiment  at  Mem 
phis,  she  went  thither  in  his  company. 

Here,  principally  in  the  hospital  of  the  First  Light  Artillery 
at  Fort  Pickering,  she  labored  through  the  summer  of  1862,  and 
afterwards  returned  to  visit  some  of  the  southern  towns  of  Illinois 
in  search  of  stores  from  the  farmers,  which  she  added  to  the  sup 
plies  forwarded  by  the  Commission. 

While  at  Memphis,  Mrs.  Porter  became  deeply  interested  in 


164 

the  welfare  of  the  escaped  slaves  and  their  families  congregated 
there. 

Receiving  aid  from  friends  at  the  North,  she  organized  a  school 
for  them,  and  spent  all  her  leisure  hours  in  giving  them  instruc 
tion.  One  of  the  nurses  she  had  brought  thither  desired  to  aid 
in  the  work,  and  obtaining  needful  books  and  charts  she  orga 
nized  a  school  for  Miss  Humphrey  at  Shiloh. 

Mrs.  Porter  was  very  successful  in  this  work.  In  her  youth 
she  had  gathered  an  infant  school  among  the  half-breed  children 
at  Mackinac  and  Point  St.  Ignace,  and  understood  well  how  to 
deal  with  these  minds  scarce  awakened  from  the  dense  slumber 
of  ignorance. 

The  school  flourished,  and  others  entered  into  the  work,  and 
other  schools  were  established.  Ministering  to  their  temporal 
wants  as  well,  clothing,  feeding,  medicating  these  unfortunate 
people,  visiting  their  hospitals  as  well  as  those  of  the  army, 
Mrs.  Porter  remained  at  Memphis  and  in  its  vicinity  until 
June,  1863. 

Her  schools  having  by  that  time  become  well-established,  and 
general  interest  in  the  scheme  awakened,  Mrs.  Porter  felt  herself 
constrained  to  once  more  devote  herself  exclusively  to  the  sol 
diers,  a  large  number  of  whom  were  languishing  in  Southern 
hospitals  in  an  unhealthy  climate.  Failing  in  her  attempts  to 
get  them  rapidly  removed  to  the  North,  through  correspondence 
with  the  Governors  of  Ohio  and  Illinois,  she  went  North  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  interviews  with  these  gentlemen.  At  Green 
Bay,  Wisconsin,  she  joined  Mrs.  Governor  Harvey,  who  was 
striving  to  obtain  a  State  Hospital  for  Wisconsin.  Here  she  pro 
posed  to  Senator  T.  O.  Howe  to  draft  a  petition  to  the  President, 
praying  for  the  establishment  of  such  hospitals.  Judge  Howe 
was  greatly  pleased  to  comply,  and  accordingly  drew  up  the 
petition  to  which  Mrs.  Howe  and  others  obtained  over  eight 
thousand  names.  Mrs.  Harvey  desired  Mrs.  Porter  to  accom 
pany  her  to  Washington  with  the  petition,  but  she  declined,  and 


MRS.  ELIZA    C.  PORTER.  165 

Mrs.  Harvey  went  alone,  and  as  the  result  of  her  efforts,  suc 
ceeded  in  the  establishment  of  the  Harvey  Hospital  at  Madison, 
Wisconsin. 

Other  parties  took  up  the  matter  in  Illinois,  and  Mrs.  Porter 
returned  to  her  beloved  work  at  the  South,  visiting  Natchez  and 
Vicksburg.  At  the  latter  place  she  joined  Mrs.  Harvey  and 
Mrs.  Bickerdyke,  all  three  ministering  by  Sanitary  stores  and 
personal  aid  to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  hospitals  and  regiments. 

While  on  her  way,  at  Memphis,  she  learned  that  the  battery, 
in  which  were  her  eldest  son  and  a  nephew,  had  gone  with 
Sherman's  army  toward  Corinth,  and  started  by  rail  to  overtake 
them.  At  Corinth,  standing  in  the  room  of  the  Sanitary  Com 
mission,  she  saw  the  battery  pass  in  which  were  her  boys.  It 
was  raining,  and  mud-bespattered  and  drenched,  her  son  rode  by 
in  an  ague  chill,  and  could  only  give  her  a  look  of  recognition  as 
he  passed  on  to  the  camp  two  miles  beyond.  The  next  morning 
she  went  out  to  his  camp,  but  missed  him,  and  returning  found 
him  at  the  Sanitary  Rooms  in  another  chill.  The  next  day  she 
nursed  him  through  a  third  chill,  and  then  parting  she  sent  her 
sick  boy  on  his  way  toward  Knoxville  and  Chattanooga. 

After  a  short  stay  at  Vicksburg  she  once  more  returned  to 
Illinois  to  plead  with  Governor  Yates  to  bring  home  his  disabled 
soldiers,  then  went  back,  by  way  of  Louisville  and  Nashville,  to 
Huntsville,  Alabama,  where  she  met  and  labored  indefatigably 
with  Mrs.  Lincoln  Clark  and  her  daughter,  of  Chicago,  and  Mrs. 
Bickerdyke. 

After  a  few  weeks  spent  there  in  comforting  the  sick,  pointing 
the  dying  to  the  Saviour,  and  ministering  to  surgeons,  officers, 
and  soldiers,  she  followed  our  conquering  arms  to  Chattanooga, 
Resaca,  Kingston,  Allatoona  Pass,  Marietta  and  Atlanta. 

As  a  memorial  of  her  earlier  movements  in  this  campaign,  we 
extract  the  following  letter  from  the  Report  for  January  and  Feb 
ruary,  1864,  of  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission. 

"From  a  mass  of  deeply  interesting  correspondence  on  hand, 


166 

we  select  the  following  letter  from  Rev.  Mrs.  Jeremiah  Porter, 
who,  with  Mrs.  Bickerdyke,  the  widely  known  and  very  efficient 
Hospital  Matron,  has  been  laboring  in  the  hospitals  of  the  15th 
Army  Corps,  most  of  the  time  since  the  battle  of  Chickamauga. 
Mrs.  Bickerdyke  was  assigned  to  hospital  duty  in  this  corps,  at 
the  request  of  General  Sherman,  and  is  still  actively  engaged 
there.  This  letter  affords  glimpses  of  the  hardships  and  priva 
tions  of  our  brave  men,  whose  sufferings  in  Southern  and  Eastern 
Tennessee  during  the  months  of  December  and  January,  have 
been  unparalleled." 

"  IN  CAMP,  NOVEMBER  4TH,  FIELD  HOSPITAL, 

"  CHATTANOOGA,  January  24,  1864. 

"  I  reached  this  place  on  New  Year's  Eve,  making  the  trip  of  the  few  miles 
from  Bridgeport  to  Chattanooga,  in  twenty-four  hours.  New  Year's  morning 
was  very  cold.  I  went  immediately  to  the  Field  Hospital  about  two  miles  out 
of  town,  where  I  found  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  hard  at  work,  as  usual,  endeavoring  to 
comfort  the  cold  and  suffering,  sick  and  wounded.  The  work  done  on  that  day 
told  most  happily  on  the  comfort  of  the  poor  wounded  men. 

"  The  wind  came  sweeping  around  Lookout  Mountain,  and  uniting  with  cur 
rents  from  the  valleys  of  Mission  Kidge,  pressed  in  upon  the  hospital  tents, 
overturning  some,  and  making  the  inmates  of  all  tremble  with  cold  and  anxious 
fear.  The  cold  had  been  preceded  by  a  great  rain,  which  added  to  the  general 
discomfort.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  went  from  tent  to  tent  in  the  gale,  carrying  hot 
bricks  and  hot  drinks  to  warm  and  to  cheer  the  poor  fellows.  '  She  is  a  power 
of  good/  said  one  soldier.  'We  fared  mighty  poor  till  she  came  here,'  said 
another.  'God  bless  the  Sanitary  Commission,'  said  a  third,  '  for  sending  women 
among  us !'  The  soldiers  fully  appreciate  '  Mother  Bickerdyke,'  as  they  call 
her,  and  her  work. 

"Mrs.  Bickerdyke  left  Vicksburg  at  the  request  of  General  Sherman,  and 
other  officers  of  his  corps,  as  they  wished  to  secure  her  services  for  the  then 
approaching  battle.  The  Field  Hospital  of  the  15th  (Sherman's)  Army  Corps, 
was  situated  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Genesee  river,  on  a  slope  at  the  base  of 
Mission  Ridge,  where,  after  the  struggle  was  over,  seventeen  hundred  of  our 
wounded  and  exhausted  soldiers  were  brought.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  reached  there 
before  the  din  and  smoke  of  battle  were  well  over,  and  before  all  were  brought 
from  the  field  of  blood  and  carnage.  There  she  remained  the  only  female 
attendant  for  four  weeks.  Never  has  she  rendered  more  valuable  service.  Dr. 
Newberry  arrived  in  Chattanooga  with  Sanitary  goods  which  Mrs.  Bickerdyke 
had  the  pleasure  of  using,  as  she  says,  'just  when  and  where  needed,'  and  never 


MRS.  ELIZA   C.  PORTER.  167 

were  Sanitary  goods  more  deeply  felt  to  be  good  goods.  'What  could  we  do 
without  them  ?'  is  a  question  I  often  hear  raised,  and  answered  with  a  hearty 
'God  bless  the  Sanitary  Commission  !'  which  is  now,  everywhere,  acknowledged 
as  a  great  power  for  good. 

"  The  Field  Hospital  was  in  a  forest,  about  five  miles  from  Chattanooga,  wood 
was  abundant,  and  the  camp  was  warmed  by  immense  burning  'log  heaps,' 
which  were  the  only  fire-places  or  cooking-stoves  of  the  camp  or  hospitals. 
Men  were  detailed  to  fell  the  trees  and  pile  the  logs  to  heat  the  air,  which  was 
very  wintry.  And  beside  them  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  made  soup  and  toast,  tea  and 
coffee,  and  broiled  mutton,  without  a  gridiron,  often  blistering  her  fingers  in 
the  process.  A  house  in  due  time  was  demolished  to  make  bunks  for  the  worst 
cases,  and  the  brick  from  the  chimney  was  converted  into  an  oven,  when  Mrs. 
Bickerdyke  made  bread,  yeast  having  been  found  in  the  Chicago  boxes,  and 
flour  at  a  neighboring  mill,  which  had  furnished  flour  to  secessionists  through 
the  war  until  now.  Great  multitudes  were  fed  from  these  rude  kitchens.  Com 
panies  of  hungry  soldiers  were  refreshed  before  those  open  fire-places,  and  from 
those  ovens.  On  one  occasion,  a  citizen  came  and  told  the  men  to  follow  him, 
he  would  show  them  a  reserve  of  beef  and  sheep  which  had  been  provided  for 
General  Bragg' s  army,  and  about  thirty  head  of  cattle  and  twenty  sheep  was 
the  prize.  Large  potash  kettles  were  found,  which  were  used  over  the  huge  log 
fires,  and  various  kitchen  utensils  for  cooking  were  brought  into  camp  from 
time  to  time,  almost  every  day  adding  to  our  conveniences.  After  four  weeks 
of  toil  and  labor,  all  the  soldiers  Avho  were  able  to  leave  were  furloughed  home, 
and  the  rest  brought  to  the  large  hospital  where  I  am  now  located.  About  nine 
hundred  men  are  here,  most  of  them  convalescents,  and  waiting  anxiously  to 
have  the  men  and  mules  supplied  with  food,  so  that  they  may  have  the  benefit 
of  the  cars,  which  have  been  promised  to  take  them  home. 

"There  was  great  joy  in  the  encampment  last  week,  at  the  announcement  of 
the  arrival  of  a  train  of  cars  from  Bridgeport.  You  at  home  can  have  little 
appreciation  of  the  feelings  of  the  men  as  that  sound  greeted  their  ears.  Our 
poor  soldiers  had  been  reduced  to  half  and  quarter  rations  for  weeks,  and  those 
of  the  poorest  quality.  The  mules  had  fallen  by  the  wayside  from  very  starva 
tion.  You  cannot  go  a  mile  in  any  direction  without  seeing  these  animals 
lying  dead  from  starvation— and  this  state  of  things  had  to  continue  until  the 
railroad  was  finished  to  Chattanooga,  and  the  cars  could  bring  in  sustenance  for 
man  and  beast.  You  will  not  wonder  then  at  the  huzzas  of  the  men  in  the  hos 
pitals  and  camps,  as  the  whistle  of  the  long  looked  for  train  was  heard. 

"The  most  harrowing  scenes  are  daily  witnessed  here.  A  wife  came  on  yes 
terday  only  to  learn  that  her  dear  husband  had  died  the  morning  previous.  Her 
lamentations  were  heart-breaking.  '  Why  could  he  not  have  lived  until  I  came ? 
Why?'  In  the  evening  came  a  sister,  whose  aged  parents  had  sent  her  to 


168  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  AVAR. 

search  for  their  only  son.  She  also  came  too  late.  The  brother  had  gone  to 
the  soldier's  grave  two  days  previous.  One  continued  wail  of  sorrow  goes  up 
from  all  parts  of  this  stricken  land. 

"  I  have  protracted  this  letter,  I  fear,  until  you  are  weary.  I  write  in  great 
haste,  not  knowing  how  to  take  the  time  from  pressing  duties  which  call  me 
everywhere.  Yours,  etc., 

"ELIZA  C.  PORTER." 

Iii  illustration  of  her  services  at  this  time,  and  of  the  undercur 
rent  of  terror  and  sadness  of  this  triumphal  march,  we  can  do  no 
better  than  to  give  some  extracts  from  her  journal,  kept  during 
this  period,  and  published  without  her  knowledge  in  the  Sanitary 
Commission  Bulletin.  It  was  commenced  on  the  15th  of  May, 
1864,  as  she  was  following  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  to  Einggold,  Georgia. 
Together  they  arrived  at  Sugar  Creek,  where  but  two  miles  dis 
tant  the  battle  was  raging,  and  spent  the  night  at  General  Logan's 
headquarters,  within  hearing  of  its  terrific  sounds.  All  night, 
and  all  day  Sunday,  they  passed  thus,  not  being  permitted  to  go 
upon  the  field,  but  caring  for  the  wounded  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
as  they  were  brought  to  the  rear.  She  says : 

"The  wounded  were  brought  into  hospitals,  quickly  and 
roughly  prepared  in  the  forest,  as  near  the  field  as  safety  would 
permit.  What  a  scene  was  presented !  Precious  sons  of  northern 
mothers,  beloved  husbands  of  northern  wives  were  already  here 
to  undergo  amputation,  to  have  wounds  probed  and  dressed,  or 
broken  limbs  set  and  bandaged.  Some  were  writhing  under  the 
surgeon's  knife,  but  bore  their  sufferings  bravely  and  uncomplain 
ingly.  There  were  many  whose  wounds  were  considered  slight, 
such  as  a  shot  through  the  hand,  arm,  or  leg,  which  but  for  the 
contrast  with  severer  cases,  would  seem  dreadful.  Never  was  the 
presence  of  women  more  joyfully  welcomed.  It  was  touching  to 
see  those  precious  boys  looking  up  into  our  faces  with  such  hope 
and  gladness.  It  brought  to  their  minds  mother  and  home,  as 
each  testified,  while  his  wounds  were  being  dressed ;  (  This  seems 
a  little  like  having  mother  about/  was  the  reiterated  expression 
of  the  wounded,  as  one  after  another  was  washed  and  had  his 


MRS.  ELIZA    C.  PORTER.  169 

j. 

wounds  dressed.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  and  myself  assisted  in  the 
operation.  Poor  boys !  how  my  heart  ached  that  I  could  do  so 
little. 

"After  doing  what  we  could  in  Hospital  Xo.  1,  to  render  the 
condition  of  the  poor  fellows  tolerable,  we  proceeded  to  Xo.  2,  and 
did  what  we  could  there,  distributing  our  sanitary  comforts  in  the 
most  econonomical  manner,  so  as  to  make  them  go  as  far  as  pos 
sible.  We  found  that  what  we  brought  in  the  ambulance  was 
giving  untold  comfort  to  our  poor  exhausted  wounded  men,  whose 
rough  hospital  couches  were  made  by  pine  boughs  with  the  stems 
cut  out,  spread  upon  the  ground  over  which  their  blankets  were 
thrown.  This  forms  the  bed,  and  the  poor  fellows'  blouses,  satu 
rated  with  their  own  blood,  is  their  only  pillow,  their  knapsacks 
being  left  behind  when  they  went  into  battle.  More  sanitary 
goods  are  on  the  way,  and  will  be  brought  to  relieve  the  men  as 
soon  as  possible." 

Amidst  all  this  care  for  others,  there  was  little  thought  for  her 
own  comfort.  She  says  in  another  place  : 

"Our  bed  was  composed  of  dry  leaves,  spread  with  a  rubber 
and  soldier's  blanket — our  own  blankets,  with  pillows  and  all, 
having  been  given  out  to  sufferers  long  before  night." 

In  this  diary  we  mid  another  illustration  of  her  extreme 
modesty.  Though  intended  but  for  the  eyes  of  her  own  family, 
she  says  much  of  Mrs.  Bickerdyke's  work,  and  but  little  of  her 
own.  Two,  three,  or  four  hundred  men,  weary  and  exhausted, 
would  be  sent  to  them,  and  they  must  exert  every  nerve  to  feed 
them,  while  they  snatched  a  little  rest.  Pickles,  sauer-kraut, 
coffee  and  hard  bread  they  gave  to  these — for  the  sick  and 
wounded  they  reserved  their  precious  luxuries.  AVith  a  fire  made 
out  of  doors,  beneath  a  burning  sun,  and  in  kettles  such  as  they 
could  find,  and  of  no  great  capacity,  they  made  coffee,  mush,  and 
cooked  dried  fruit  and  vegetables,  toiling  uuweariedly  through 
the  long  hot  days  and  far  into  the  nights.  Many  of  the  men 
knew  Mrs.  Bickerdyke,  for  many  of  them  she  had  nursed  through 

22 


170  WOMAN'S  WOEK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

wounds  and  sickness  during  the  two  years  she  had  been  with  this 
army,  and  she  was  saluted  as  "Mother"  on  all  sides.  Not  less 
grateful  were  they  to  Mrs.  Porter.  Again  she  says : 

"The  failing  and  faint-hearted  are  constantly  coming  in.  They 
report  themselves  sick,  and  a  few  days  of  rest  and  nourishing 
food  will  restore  most  of  them,  but  some  have  made  their  last 
march,  and  will  soon  be  laid  in  a  soldier's  grave !  Mrs.  Bicker- 
dyke  has  sent  gruel  and  other  food,  which  I  have  been  distribut 
ing  according  to  the  wants  of  the  prostrate  multitude,  all  on  the 
floor.  Some  are  very  sick  men.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  do  some 
thing  for  them.  They  are  all  dear  to  some  circle,  and  are  a  noble 
company." 

Again  she  gives  a  sort  of  summary  of  her  work  in  a  letter, 
dated  Kingston,  Georgia,  June  1st:  "We  have  received,  fed,  and 
comforted  at  this  hospital,  during  the  past  week,  between  four 
and  five  thousand  wounded  men,  and  still  they  come.  All  the 
food  and  clothing  have  passed  under  our  supervision,  and,  indeed, 
almost  every  garment  has  been  given  out  by  our  hands.  Almost 
every  article  of  special  diet  has  been  cooked  by  Mrs.  Bickerdyke 
personally,  and  all  has  been  superintended  by  her.  I  speak  of 
this  particularly,  as  it  is  a  wonderful  fulfillment  of  the  promise, 
'  As  thy  day  is,  so  shall  thy  strength  be/  r' 

Again,  writing  from  Alatoona,  Georgia,  June  14th:  "I  have 
just  visited  a  tent  filled  with  '  amputated  cases/  They  are  noble 
young  men,  the  pride  and  hope  of  loving  families  at  the  North, 
but  most  of  them  are  so  low  that  they  will  never  again  return  to 
them.  Each  had  a  special  request  for  ( something  that  he  could 
relish/  I  made  my  way  quickly  down  from  the  heights,  where 
the  hospital  tents  are  pitched,  and  sought  for  the  food  they  craved. 
I  found  it  among  the  goods  of  the  Sanitary  Commission — and 
now  the  dried  currants,  cherries,  and  other  fruit  are  stewing ;  we 
have  unsoddered  cans  containing  condensed  milk  and  preserved 
fruit — and  the  poor  fellows  will  not  be  disappointed  in  their  ex 
pectations." 


MRS.  ELIZA    C.  PORTER.  171 

In  the  foregoing  sketch  we  have  given  but  a  very  brief  state 
ment  of  the  labors  and  sacrifices  of  Mrs.  Porter  which  were  not 
intermitted  until  the  close  of  the  war.  We  have  said  that  her  sons 
were  in  the  army.  Her  eldest  son  re-enlisted  at  the  close  of  his 
first  term,  and  the  youngest,  after  a  hundred  days'  service,  returned 
to  college  to  fit  himself  for  future  usefulness  in  his  regenerated 
country.  Mr.  Porter's  services,  as  well  as  those  of  his  wife  were 
of  great  value,  and  her  son,  James  B.  Porter,  though  serving  as 
a  private  only,  in  Battery  A,  First  Illinois  Light  Artillery,  has 
had  frequent  and  honorable  mention. 

At  the  close  of  Sherman's  campaign  Mrs.  Porter  finished  her 
army  service  by  caring  for  the  travel- worn  and  wearied  braves  as 
they  came  into  camp  at  Washington  where,  with  Mrs.  Stephen 
Barker  and  others,  she  devoted  herself  to  the  distribution  of  sani 
tary  stores,  attending  the  sick  and  in  various  ways  comforting 
and  relieving  all  who  needed  her  aid  after  the  toils  of  the  Grand 
March. 


MRS.    MARY    A.    BICKERDYKE. 


MONG  the  hundreds  who  with  untiring  devotion  have 
consecrated  their  services  to  the  ministrations  of  mercy 
in  the  Armies  of  the  Union,  there  is  but  one  "  Mother" 
Bickerdyke.  Others  may  in  various  ways  have  made 
as  great  sacrifices,  or  displayed  equal  heroism,  but  her  measures 
and  methods  have  been  peculiarly  her  own,  and  "none  but  her 
self  can  be  her  parallel.77 

She  is  a  widow,  somewhat  above  forty  years  of  age,  of  humble 
origin,  and  of  but  moderate  education,  with  a  robust  frame  and 
great  powers  of  endurance,  and  possessing  a  rough  stirring  elo 
quence,  a  stern,  determined  will  and  extraordinary  executive 
ability.  No  woman  connected  with  the  philanthropic  work  of 
the  army  has  encountered  more  obstacles  in  the  accomplishment 
of  her  purposes,  and  none  ever  carried  them  through  more 
triumphantly.  She  has  two  little  sons,  noble  boys,  to  whom  she 
is  devotedly  attached,  but  her  patriotic  zeal  was  even  stronger 
than  her  love  for  her  children,  and  she  gave  herself  up  to  the 
cause  of  her  country  most  unhesitatingly. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  she  was,  it  is  said,  house 
keeper  in  the  family  of  a  gentleman  in  Cleveland,  but  she 
commenced  her  labors  among  the  sick  and  wounded  men  of  the 
army  very  early,  and  never  relinquished  her  work  until  the  close 
of  the  conflict.  It  has  been  one  of  her  peculiarities  that  she 
devoted  her  attention  almost  exclusively  to  the  care  of  the 


MRS.  MARY  A.BICKERDYKE 


MRS.  MARY    A.  BICKERDYKE.  173 

private  soldiers ;  the  officers,  she  said,  had  enough  to  look  after 
them ;  but  it  was  the  men,  poor  fellows,  with  but  a  private's  pay, 
a  private's  fare,  and  a  private's  dangers,  to  whom  she  was  par 
ticularly  called.  They  were  dear  to  somebody,  and  she  would 
be  a  mother  to  them.  And  it  should  be  said,  to  the  honor  of  the 
private  soldiers  of  the  Western  Armies,  that  they  returned  her 
kindness  with  very  decided  gratitude  and  affection.  If  they 
were  her  "boys"  as  she  always  insisted,  she  was  " Mother  Bicker- 
dyke"  to  the  whole  army.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  zeal  and 
earnestness  with  which  she  has  always  defended  their  interests. 
For  her  "  boys,"  she  would  brave  everything ;  if  the  surgeons  or 
attendants  at  the  hospitals  were  unfaithful,  she  denounced  them 
with  a  terrible  vehemence,  and  always  managed  to  secure  their 
dismission  •  if  the  Government  officers  were  slow  or  delinquent  in 
forwarding  needed  supplies,  they  were  sure  to  be  reported  at 
headquarters  by  her,  and  in  such  a  way  that  their  conduct  would 
be  thoroughly  investigated.  Yet  while  thus  stern  and  vindictive 
toward  those  who  through  negligence  or  malice  wronged  the 
soldiers  of  the  army,  no  one  could  be  more  tender  in  dealing 
with  the  sick  and  wounded.  On  the  battle-field,  in  the  field, 
camp,  post  or  general  hospitals,  her  vigorous  arm  was  ever  ready 
to  lift  the  wounded  soldier  as  tenderly  as  his  own  mother  could 
have  done,  and  her  ready  skill  was  exerted  with  equal  facility  in 
dressing  his  wounds,  or  in  preparing  such  nourishment  for  him 
as  should  call  back  his  fleeting  strength  or  tempt  his  fickle  and 
failing  appetite.  She  was  a  capital  forager,  and  for  the  sake  of  a 
sick  soldier  she  would  undergo  any  peril  or  danger,  and  violate 
military  rules  without  the  least  hesitation.  For  herself  she 
craved  nothing — would  accept  nothing — if  "the  boys  in  the 
hospital"  could  be  provided  for,  she  was  supremely  happy.  The 
soldiers  were  ready  to  do  anything  in  their  power  for  her,  while 
the  contrabands  regarded  her  almost  as  a  divinity,  and  would  fly 
with  unwonted  alacrity  to  obey  her  commands. 

We  are  not  certain  whether  she  was  an  assistant  in  one  of  the 


176  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

are  suffered  to  starve  and  die,  because  you  want  to  be  off  upon  a 
drunk  !  Pull  off  your  shoulder-straps/'  she  continued,  as  he  tried 
feebly  to  laugh  off  her  reproaches,  "  pull  off  your  shoulder-straps, 
for  you  shall  not  stay  in  the  army  a  week  longer."  The  surgeon 
still  laughed,  but  he  turned  pale,  for  he  knew  her  power.  She 
was  as  good  as  her  word.  Within  three  days  she  had  caused  his 
discharge.  He  went  to  headquarters  and  asked  to  be  reinstated. 
Major-Gen  era!  Sherman,  who  was  then  in  command,  listened 
patiently,  and  then  inquired  who  had  procured  his  discharge. 
"  I  was  discharged  in  consequence  of  misrepresentation/7  answered 
the  surgeon,  evasively.  "  But  who  caused  your  discharge  ?"  per 
sisted  the  general.  "  Why/'  said  the  surgeon,  hesitatingly,  "  I 
suppose  it  was  that  woman,  that  Mrs.  Bickerdyke."  "  Oh  !"  said 
Sherman,  "  well,  if  it  was  her,  I  can  do  nothing  for  you.  She 
ranks  me." 

We  may  say  in  this  connection,  that  the  commanding  generals 
of  the  armies  in  which  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  performed  her  labors, 
Generals  Sherman,  Hurlburt,  Grant,  and  Sherman  again,  in  his 
great  march,  having  become  fully  satisfied  how  invaluable  she 
was  in  her  care  of  the  private  soldiers,  were  always  ready  to  listen 
to  her  appeals  and  to  grant  her  requests.  She  was,  in  particular, 
a  great  favorite  Avith  both  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  had  only  to 
ask  for  anything  she  needed  to  get  it,  if  it  was  within  the  power 
of  the  commander  to  obtain  it.  It  should  be  said  in  justice  to 
her,  that  she  never  asked  anything  for  herself,  and  that  her 
requests  were  always  for  something  that  would  promote  the  wel 
fare  of  the  men. 

Some  months  after  the  discharge  of  the  assistant  surgeon,  the 
surgeon  in  charge  of  the  hospital,  who  was  a  martinet  in  disci 
pline,  and  somewhat  irritated  for  some  cause,  resolved,  in  order 
to  annoy  her,  to  compel  the  discharge  of  the  negro  nurses  and 
attendants,  and  require  her  to  employ  convalescent  soldiers,  as 
the  other  hospitals  were  doing.  For  this  purpose  he  procured 
from  the  medical  director  an  order  that  none  but  convalescent 


MRS.  MARY    A.  BICKERDYKE.  177 

soldiers  should  be  employed  as  nurses  in  the  Memphis  hospitals. 
The  order  was  issued,  probably,  without  any  knowledge  of  the 
annoyance  it  was  intended  to  cause  Mrs.  Bickerdyke.  It  was  to 
take  effect  at  nine  o'clock  the  following  morning.  Mrs.  Bicker- 
dyke  heard  of  it  just  at  night.  The  Gayoso  Hospital  was  nearly 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  from  headquarters.  It  was  raining  heavily, 
and  the  mud  was  deep ;  but  she  was  not  the  woman  to  be  thwarted 
in  her  plans  by  a  hospital  surgeon,  without  a  struggle;  so,  nothing 
daunted,  she  sallied  out,  having  first  had  the  form  of  an  order 
drawn  up,  permitting  the  employment  of  contrabands  as  nurses, 
at  the  Gayoso  Hospital.  Arrived  at  headquarters,  she  was  told 
that  the  commanding  general,  Sherman's  successor,  was  ill  and 
could  not  be  seen.  Suspecting  that  his  alleged  illness  was  only 
another  name  for  over-indulgence  in  strong  drink,  she  insisted 
that  she  must  and  would  sec  him,  and  in  spite  of  the  objections 
of  his  staff-officers,  forced  her  way  to  his  room,  and  finding  him  in 
bed,  roused  him  partially,  propped  him  up,  put  a  pen  in  his  hand, 
and  made  him  sign  the  order  she  had  brought.  This  done,  she 
returned  to  her  hospital,  and  the  next  morning,  when  the  surgeon 
and  medical  director  came  around  to  enforce  the  order  of  the 
latter,  she  quietly  handed  them  the  order  of  the  commanding- 
general,  permitting  her  to  retain  her  contrabands. 

While  in  charge  of  this  hospital,  she  made  several  journeys  to 
Chicago  and  other  cities  of  the  Northwest,  to  procure  aid  for  the 
suffering  soldiers.  The  first  of  these  were  characteristic  of  her 
energy  and  resolution.  She  had  found  great  difficulty  in  pro 
curing,  in  the  vicinity  of  Memphis,  the  milk,  butter,  and  eggs 
needed  for  her  hospital.  She  had  foraged  from  the  secessionists, 
had  traded  with  them  her  own  clothing  and  whatever  else  she 
could  spare,  for  these  necessaries  for  her  "  boys,"  until  there  was 
nothing  more  left  to  trade.  The  other  hospitals  were  in  about  the 
same  condition.  She  resolved,  therefore,  to  have  a  dairy  for  the 
hospitals.  Going  among  the  farmers  of  Central  Illinois,  she 
begged  two  hundred  cows  and  a  thousand  hens,  and  returned  in 

23 


178  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

triumph  with  her  flock  of  hens  and  her  drove  of  cows.  On 
reaching  Memphis,  her  cattle  and  fowls  made  such  a  lowing  and 
cackling,  that  the  secessionists  of  the  city  entered  their  complaints 
to  the  commanding  general,  who  assigned  her  an  island  in  the 
Mississippi,  opposite  the  city,  where  her  dairy  and  hennery  were 
comfortably  accommodated.  It  was  we  believe,  while  on  this 
expedition  that,  at  the  request  of  Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore, 
the  Associate  Managers  of  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commis 
sion,  she  visited  Milwaukie,  Wisconsin.  The  Ladies'  Aid  Society 
of  that  city  had  memorialized  their  Chamber  of  Commerce  to 
make  an  appropriation  to  aid  them  in  procuring  supplies  for  the 
wounded  soldiers,  and  were  that  day  to  receive  the  reply  of  the 
chamber. 

Mrs.  Bickerdyke  went  with  the  ladies,  and  the  President  of 
the  Chamber,  in  his  blandest  tones,  informed  them  that  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  had  considered  their  request,  but  that 
they  had  expended  so  much  recently  in  fitting  out  a  regiment, 
that  they  thought  they  must  be  excused  from  making  any  contri 
butions  to  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  asked  the 
privilege  of  saying  a  few  words  in  the  way  of  answer.  For  half 
an  hour  she  held  them  enchained  while  she  described,  in  simple 
but  eloquent  language,  the  life  of  the  private  soldier,  his  priva 
tions  and  sufferings,  the  patriotism  which  animated  him,  and  led 
him  to  endure,  without  murmuring,  hardships,  sickness,  and 
even  death  itself,  for  his  country.  She  contrasted  this  with  the 
sordid  love  of  gain  which  not  only  shrank  from  these  sacrifices 
in  person,  but  grudged  the  pittance  necessary  to  alleviate  them, 
while  it  made  the  trifling  amount  it  had  already  contributed,  an 
excuse  for  making  no  further  donations,  and  closed  with  this 
forcible  denunciation  :  "  And  you,  merchants  and  rich  men  of 
Milwaukie,  living  at  your  ease,  dressed  in  your  broad-cloth, 
knowing  little  and  caring  less  for  the  sufferings  of  these  soldiers 
from  hunger  and  thirst,  from  cold  and  nakedness,  from  sickness 
and  wounds,  from  pain  and  death,  all  incurred  that  you  may  roll 


MRS.  MARY    A.  BICKERDYKE.  179 

in  wealth,  and  your  homes  and  little  ones  be  safe;  you  will  refuse 
to  give  aid  to  these  poor  soldiers,  because,  forsooth,  you  gave  a 
few  dollars  some  time  ago  to  fit  out  a  regiment !  Shame  on  you — 
you  are  not  men — you  are  cowards — go  over  to  Canada — this 
country  has  no  place  for  such  creatures!"  The  Chamber  of  Com 
merce  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  rebuke,  and  they  reconsidered 
their  action,  and  made  an  appropriation  at  once  to  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society. 

Immediately  after  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg,  Mrs.  Bicker- 
dyke  surrendered  her  hospital  at  Memphis  into  other  hands,  and 
went  thither  to  care  for  the  wounded.  She  accompanied  Sher 
man's  corps  in  their  expedition  to  Jackson,  and  amid  all  the  hard 
ships  and  exposures  of  the  field,  ministered  to  the  sick  and 
wounded.  Cooking  for  them  in  the  open  air,  under  the  burning 
sun  and  the  heavy  dews,  she  was  much  exposed  to  the  malarious 
fevers  of  that  sickly  climate,  but  her  admirable  constitution 
enabled  her  to  endure  fatigue  and  exposure,  better  even  than  most 
of  the  soldiers.  Though  always  neat  and  cleanly  in  person,  she 
was  indifferent  to  the  attractions  of  dress,  and  amid  the  flying 
sparks  from  her  fires  in  the  open  air,  her  calico  dresses  would 
often  take  fire,  and  as  she  expressed  it,  "the  soldiers  would  put 
her  out,"  i.  e.  extinguish  the  sparks  which  were  burning  her 
dresses.  In  this  way  it  happened  that  she  had  not  a  single 
dress  which  had  not  been  more  or  less  riddled  by  these  sparks. 
With  her  clothing  in  this  plight  she  visited  Chicago  again  late  in 
the  summer  of  1863,  and  the  ladies  of  the  Sanitary  Commission 
replenished  her  wardrobe,  and  soon  after  sent  her  a  box  of  ex 
cellent  clothing  for  her  own  use.  Some  of  the  articles  in  this  box, 
the  gift  of  those  who  admired  her  earnest  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  the  soldiers,  were  richly  wrought  and  trimmed.  Among  these 
were  two  elegant  night  dresses,  trimmed  with  ruffles  and  lace. 
On  receiving  the  box,  Mrs.  Bickerdyke,  who  was  again  for  the 
time  in  charge  of  a  hospital,  reserving  for  herself  only  a  few  of 
the  plainest  and  cheapest  articles,  traded  off  the  remainder,  ex- 


180  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

cept  the  two  night  dresses,  with  the  rebel  women  of  the  vicinity, 
for  butter,  eggs,  and  other  delicacies  for  her  sick  soldiers,  and  as 
she  purposed  going  to  Cairo  soon,  and  thought  that  the  night 
dresses  would  bring  more  for  the  same  purpose  in  Tennessee  or 
Kentucky,  she  reserved  them  to  be  traded  on  her  journey.  On 
her  way,  however,  at  one  of  the  towns  on  the  Mobile  and 
Ohio  railroad,  she  found  two  poor  fellows  who  had  been  dis 
charged  from  some  of  the  hospitals  with  their  wounds  not  yet 
fully  healed,  and  their  exertions  in  traveling  had  caused  them  to 
break  out  afresh.  Here  they  were,  in  a  miserable  shanty,  sick, 
bleeding,  hungry,  penniless,  and  with  only  their  soiled  clothing. 
Mrs.  Bickerdyke  at  once  took  them  in  hand.  Washing  their 
wounds  and  staunching  the  blood,  she  tore  off  the  lower  portions 
of  the  night  dresses  for  bandages,  and  as  the  men  had  no  shirts, 
she  arrayed  them  in  the  remainder  of  these  dresses,  ruffles,  lace, 
and  all.  The  soldiers  modestly  demurred  a  little  at  the  ruffles 
and  lace,  but  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  suggested  to  them  that  if  any 
inquiries  were  made,  they  could  say  that  they  had  been  plun 
dering  the  secessionists. 

Visiting  Chicago  at  this  time,  she  was  again  invited  to  Mil- 
waukie,  and  went  with  the  ladies  to  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
Here  she  was  very  politely  received,  and  the  President  informed 
her  that  the  Chamber  feeling  deeply  impressed  with  the  good 
work,  she  and  the  other  ladies  were  doing  in  behalf  of  the  sol 
diers,  had  voted  a  contribution  of  twelve  hundred  dollars  a  month 
to  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  was  not,  however, 
disposed  to  tender  them  the  congratulations,  to  which  perhaps 
they  believed  themselves  entitled  for  their  liberality.  "You 
believe  yourselves  very  generous,  no  doubt,  gentlemen,"  she  said, 
"and  think  that  because  you  have  voted  this  pretty  sum,  you  are 
doing  all  that  is  required  of  you.  But  I  have  in  my  hospital  a 
hundred  poor  soldiers  who  have  done  more  than  any  of  you. 
Who  of  you  would  contribute  a  leg,  an  arm,  or  an  eye,  instead  of 
what  you  have  done?  How  many  hundred  or  thousand  dollars 


MRS.  MARY    A.  BICKERDYKE.  181 

would  you  consider  an  equivalent  for  either?  Don't  deceive 
yourselves,  gentlemen.  The  poor  soldier  who  has  given  an  arm, 
a  leg,  or  an  eye  to  his  country  (and  many  of  them  have  given 
more  than  one)  has  given  more  than  you  have  or  can.  How 
much  more,  then,  he  who  has  given  his  life?  No!  gentlemen, 
you  must  set  your  standard  higher  yet  or  you  will  not  come  up 
to  the  full  measure  of  liberality  in  giving." 

On  her  return  to  the  South  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  spent  a  few  weeks 
at  Huntsville,  Alabama,  in  charge  of  a  hospital,  and  then  joined 
Sherman's  Fifteenth  Corps  in  their  rapid  march  toward  Chatta 
nooga.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Sherman's  Corps,  or  rather 
the  Arm)  of  the  Tennessee  which  he  now  commanded  were  hur 
ried  into  action  immediately  on  their  arrival  at  Chattanooga. 
To  them  was  assigned  the  duty  of  making  the  attack  against  that 
portion  of  the  enemy  who  were  posted  on  the  northern  termina 
tion  of  Mission  Ridge,  and  the  persistent  assaults  on  Fort  Buck- 
n  er  were  attended  with  severe  slaughter,  though  they  made  the 
victory  elsewhere  possible.  The  Field  Hospital  of  the  Fifteenth 
Army  Corps  was  situated  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Genesee 
River,  on  a  slope  at  the  base  of  Mission  Ridge,  where  after  the 
struggle  was  over  seventeen  hundred  of  our  wounded  and  ex 
hausted  soldiers  were  brought.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  reached  there 
before  the  din  and  smoke  of  battle  were  well  over,  and  before  all 
were  brought  from  the  field  of  blood  and  carnage.  There  she 
remained  the  only  female  attendant  for  four  weeks.  The  sup 
plies  she  had  been  able  to  bring  with  her  soon  gave  out,  but  Dr. 
Newberry,  the  Western  Secretary  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
presently  arrived  with  an  ample  supply  which  she  used  freely. 

The  Field  Hospital  was  in  a  "forest,  about  five  miles  from 
Chattanooga;  wood  was  abundant,  and  the  camp  was  warmed  by 
immense  burning  log  heaps,  which  were  the  only  fire-places  or 
cooking-stoves  of  the  camp  or  hospitals.  Men  were  detailed  to 
fell  the  trees  and  pile  the  logs  to  heat  the  air,  which  was  very 
wintry.  Beside  these  fires  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  made  soup  and 


182  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL,  WAR. 

toast,  tea  and  coffee,  and  broiled  mutton  without  a  gridiron,  often 
blistering  her  fingers  in  the  process.  A  house  in  due  time  was 
demolished  to  make  bunks  for  the  worst  cases,  and  the  bricks 
from  the  chimney  were  converted  into  an  oven,  where  Mrs.  Bick- 
erdyke  made  bread,  yeast  having  been  found  in  the  Chicago 
boxes,  and  flour  at  a  neighboring  mill  which  had  furnished  flour 
to  secessionists  through  the  war  until  that  time.  Great  multi 
tudes  were  fed  from  these  rude  kitchens,  and  from  time  to  time 
other  conveniences  were  abided  and  the  labor  made  somewhat  less 
exhausting.  After  four  weeks  of  severe  toil  all  the  soldiers  who 
were  able  to  leave  were  furloughed  home,  and  the  remainder, 
about  nine  hundred,  brought  to  a  more  comfortable  Field  Hos 
pital,  two  miles  from  Chattanooga.  In  this  hospital  Mrs.  Bick- 
erdyke  continued  her  work,  being  joined,  New  Year's  eve,  by 
Mrs.  Eliza  C.  Porter,  who  thenceforward  was  her  constant  asso 
ciate,  both  being  employed  by  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Com 
mission  to  attend  to  this  work  of  special  field  relief  in  that  army. 
Mrs.  Porter  says  that  when  she  arrived  there  it  was  very  cold, 
and  the  wind  which  had  followed  a  heavy  rain  was  very  piercing, 
overturning  some  of  the  hospital  tents  and  causing  the  inmates 
of  all  to  tremble  with  cold  and  anxious  fear.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke 
was  going  from  tent  to  tent  in  the  gale  carrying  hot  bricks  and 
hot  drinks  to  warm  and  cheer  the  poor  fellows.  It  was  touching 
to  see  the  strong  attachment  the  soldiers  felt  for  her.  "  She  is  a 
power  of  good,"  said  one  soldier.  "We  fared  mighty  poor  till 
she  came  here,"  said  another.  "  God  bless  the  Sanitary  Commis 
sion,"  said  a  third,  "  for  sending  women  among  us."  True  to  her 
attachment  to  the  private  soldiers,  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  early  sought 
an  interview  with  General  Grant,  and  told  him  in  her  plain  way, 
that  the  surgeons  in  some  of  the  hospitals  were  great  rascals,  and 
neglected  the  men  shamefully ;  and  that  unless  they  were  removed 
and  faithful  men  put  in  their  places,  he  would  lose  hundreds  and 
perhaps  thousands  of  his  veteran  soldiers  whom  he  could  ill 
afford  to  spare.  "You  must  not,"  she  said,  "trust  anybody's 


MRS.  MARY   A.  BICKERDYKE.  183 

report  in  this  matter,  but  see  to  it  yourself.  Disguise  yourself  so 
that  the  surgeons  or  men  won't  know  you,  and  go  around  to  the 
hospitals  and  see  for  yourself  how  the  men  are  neglected." 

"But,  Mrs.  Bickerdyke,"  said  the  general,  "that  is  the  business 
of  my  medical  director,  he  must  attend  to  that.  I  can't  see  to 
everything  in  person." 

"Well,"  was  her  reply,  "leave  it  to  him  if  you  think  best;  but 
if  you  do  you  will  lose  your  men." 

The  general  made  no  promises,  but  a  night  or  two  later  the 
hospitals  were  visited  by  a  stranger  who  made  very  particular 
inquiries,  and  within  a  week  about  half  a  dozen  surgeons  were 
dismissed  and  more  efficient  men  put  in  their  places.  At  the 
opening  of  spring,  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  and  Mrs.  Porter  returned  to 
Huntsville  and  superintended  the  distribution  of  Sanitary  Sup 
plies  in  the  hospitals  there,  and  at  Pulaski  and  other  points. 

No  sooner  was  General  Sherman  prepared  to  move  on  his 
Atlanta  Campaign  than  he  sent  word  to  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  to  come 
up  and  accompany  the  army  in  its  march.  She  accordingly  left 
Huntsville  on  the  10th  of  May  for  Chattanooga,  and  from  thence 
went  immediately  to  Einggold,  near  which  town  the  army  was 
then  stationed.  As  the  army  moved  forward  to  Dalton  and 
Resaca,  she  sent  forward  teams  laden  with  supplies,  and  followed 
them  in  an  ambulance  the  next  day.  On  the  16th  of  May  she 
and  her  associate  Mrs.  Porter  proceeded  at  once  to  the  Field 
Hospitals  which  were  as  near  as  safety  would  permit  to  the  hard- 
fought  battle-ground  of  the  previous  day,  washed  the  wounded, 
dressed  their  wounds,  and  administered  to  them  such  nourish 
ment  as  could  be  prepared.  There  was  at  first  seme  little 
delay  in  the  receipt  of  sanitary  stores,  but  with  wonderful  tact 
and  ingenuity  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  succeeded  in  making  palatable 
dishes  for  the  sick  from  the  hard  tack,  coffee  and  other  items  of 
the  soldier's  ration.  Soon  however  the  sanitary  goods  came  up, 
and  thenceforward,  with  her  rare  executive  ability  the  depart 
ment  of  special  relief  for  that  portion  of  the  army  to  which  she 


184  WOMAN'S    WORK    IN    THE    CIVIL    WAR. 

was  assigned  was  maintained  in  its  highest  condition  of  efficiency, 
in  spite  of  disabilities  which  would  have  completely  discouraged 
any  woman  of  less  resolution.  The  diary  of  her  associate,  Mrs. 
Porter,  is  full  of  allusions  to  the  extraordinary  exertions  of  Mrs. 
Bickerdyke  during  this  campaign.  We  quote  two  or  three  as 
examples. 

"  To-day  every  kettle  which  could  be  raised  has  been  used  in 
making  coffee.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  has  made  barrel  after  barrel, 
and  it  is  a  comfort  to  know  that  multitudes  are  reached,  and 
cheered,  and  saved.  Two  hundred  and  sixty  slightly  wounded 
men  just  came  to  this  point  on  the  cars  on  their  way  North,  all 
hungry  and  weary,  saying,  'We  are  so  thirsty/  'Do  give  us  some- 
tiling  to  eat.?  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  was  engaged  in  giving  out 
supper  to  the  three  hundred  in  wards  here,  and  told  them  she 
could  not  feed  them  then.  They  turned  away  in  sorrow  and  were 
leaving,  when  learning  who  they  were — wounded  men  of  the 
Twentieth  Army  Corps,  and  their  necessity — she  told  them  to 
wait  a  few  moments,  she  would  attend  to  them.  She  gave  them 
coffee,  krout,  and  potato  pickles,  which  arc  never  eaten  but  by 
famished  men,  and  for  once  they  were  a  luxury.  I  stood  in  the 
room  where  our  supplies  were  deposited,  giving  to  some  crackers, 
to  some  pickles,  and  to  each  hungry  man  something.  One  of 
the  green  cards  that  come  on  all  the  stores  of  the  Northwestern 
Commission  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  had  tacked  upon  the  wall,  and  this 
told  the  inquirers  from  what  branch  of  the  Commission  the  sup 
plies  were  obtained.  The  men  were  mostly  from  New  York, 
Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and  most  grateful  recipients  were 
they  of  the  generosity  of  the  Northwest.  You  can  imagine  the 
effort  made  to  supply  two  barrels  of  coffee  with  only  three  camp- 
kettles,  two  iron  boilers  holding  two  pailfuls,  one  small  iron  tea 
kettle  and  one  sauce-pan,  to  make  it  in.  These  all  placed  over  a 
dry  rail-fire  were  boiled  in  double-quick  time,  and  were  filled 
and  refilled  till  all  had  a  portion.  Chicago  canned  milk  never 
gave  more  comfort  than  on  this  occasion,  I  assure  you.  Our 


MRS.  MARY    A.  BICKERDYKE.  185 

cooking  conveniences  are  much  the  same  as  at  Mission  "Ridge, 
but  there  is  to  be  a  change  soon.  The  Medical  Director  informs 
me  that  this  is  to  be  a  recovering  hospital,  and  cooking  apparatus 
will  soon  be  provided." 

"Mrs.  Bickerdyke  was  greeted  on  the  street  by  a  soldier  on 
horseback;  'Mother,'  said  lie,  'is  that  you?  Don't  you  remem 
ber  me  ?  I  was  in  the  hospital,  my  arm  amputated,  and  I  was 
saved  by  your  kindness.  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you/  giving  her  a 
beautiful  bouquet  of  roses,  the  only  token  of  grateful  remem 
brance  he  could  command.  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  daily  receives  such 
greetings  from  men,  who  say  they  have  been  saved  from  death  by 
her  efforts." 

"To-day  three  hundred  and  twelve  men  have  been  fed  and 
comforted  here.  This  morning  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  made  mush  for 
two  hundred,  having  gathered  up  in  various  places  kettles,  so 
that  by  great  effort  out  of  doors  she  can  cook  something.  Potatoes, 
received  from  Iowa,  and  dried  fruit  and  canned,  have  been  dis 
tributed  among  the  men.  •  Many  of  them  are  from  Iowa.  '  What 
could  we  do  without  these  stores  ?'  is  the  constant  inquiry." 

"Almost  every  article  of  special  diet  has  been  cooked  by  Mrs. 
Bickerdyke  personally,  and  all  has  been  superintended  by  her." 

After  the  close  of  the  Atlanta  Campaign  and  the  convalescence 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  wounded,  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  returned  to 
Chicago  for  a  brief  period  of  rest,  but  was  soon  called  to  Nash 
ville  and  Franklin  to  attend  the-  wounded  of  General  Thomas's 
Army  after  the  campaign  which  ended  in  Flood's  utter  discomfi 
ture.  When  Savannah  was  surrendered  she  hastened  thither,  and 
after  organizing  the  supply  department  of  its  hospitals,  she  and 
Mrs.  Porter,  who  still  accompanied  her,  established  their  system 
of  Field  Relief  in  Sherman's  Campaign  through  the  Carolinas. 
When  at  last  in  June,  1865,  Sherman's  veterans  reached  the  Xa- 
tional  Capitol  and  were  to  be  mustered  out,  the  Sanitary  Com 
mission  commenced  its  work  of  furnishing  the  supplies  of  clothing 
and  other  needful  articles  to  these  grim  soldiers,  to  make  their 

24 


186  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

homeward  journey  more  comfortable  and  their  appearance  to  their 
families  more  agreeable.  The  work  of  distribution  in  the  Fif 
teenth  and  Seventeenth  Army  Corps  was  assigned  to  Mrs.  Bick- 
erdyke  and  Mrs.  Porter,,  and  was  performed,  says  Mrs.  Barker, 
who  had  the  general  superintendence  of  the  distribution,  admira 
bly.  With  this  labor  Mrs.  Bickerdyke's  connection  with  the 
sanitary  work  of  the  army  ceased.  She  had,  however,  been  too 
long  engaged  in  philanthropic  labor,  to  be  content  to  sit  down 
quietly,  and  lead  a  life  of  inaction;  and  after  a  brief  period  of 
rest,  she  began  to  gather  the  more  helpless  of  the  freedmen,  in 
Chicago,  and  has  since  devoted  her  time  and  efforts  to  a  "  Freed- 
men's  Home  and  Refuge77  in  that  city,  in  which  she  is  accom 
plishing  great  good.  Out  of  the  host  of  zealous  workers  in  the 
hospitals  and  in  the  field,  none  have  borne  to  their  homes  in 
greater  measure  the  hearty  and  earnest  love  of  the  soldiers,  as 
none  had  been  more  zealously  and  persistently  devoted  to  their 
interests. 


Miss  MARGARET  F.  BRKCKENRIDOF 


MARGARET    E.    BRECKINRIDGE. 


TRUE  heroine  of  the  war  was  Margaret  Elizabeth 
Breckinridge.  Patient,  courageous,  self-  forgetting, 
steady  of  purpose  and  cheerful  in  spirit,  she  belonged 
by  nature  to  the  heroic  order,  while  all  the  circum 
stances  of  her  early  life  tended  to  mature  and  prepare  her  for  her 
destined  work.  Had  her  lot  been  cast  in  the  dark  days  of  reli 
gious  intolerance  and  persecution,  her  steadfast  enthusiasm  and 
holy  zeal  would  have  earned  for  her  a  martyr's  cross  and  crown  ; 
but,  born  in  this  glorious  nineteenth  century,  and  reared  in  an 
atmosphere  of  liberal  thought  and  active  humanity,  the  first  spark 
of  patriotism  that  flashed  across  the  startled  Xorth  at  the  out 
break  of  the  rebellion,  set  all  her  soul  aglow,  and  made  it  hence 
forth  an  altar  of  living  sacrifice,  a  burning  and  a  shining  light, 
to  the  end  of  her  days.  Dearer  to  her  gentle  spirit  than  any 
martyr's  crown,  must  have  been  the  consciousness  that  this  God- 
given  light  had  proved  a  guiding  beacon  to  many  a  faltering  soul 
feeling  its  way  into  the  dim  beyond,  out  of  the  drear  loneliness 
of  camp  or  hospital.  With  her  slight  form,  her  bright  face,  and 
her  musical  voice,  she  seemed  a  ministering  angel  to  the  sick  and 
suffering  soldiers,  while  her  sweet  womanly  purity  and  her  tender 
devotion  to  their  wants  made  her  almost  an  object  of  worship 
among  them.  "Ain't  she  an  angel?"  said  a  gray-headed  soldier 
as  he  watched  her  one  morning  as  she  was  busy  getting  breakfast 
for  the  boys  on  the  steamer  "City  of  Alton."  "She  never  seems 
to  tire,  she  is  always  smiling,  and  don't  seem  to  walk — she  flies, 

187 


190 

lishcd  by  her  friends  shortly  after  her  death,  which  occurred  at 
Niagara  Falls,  July  27th,  1864. 

"  Margaret  Elizabeth  Breckinridge  was  born  in  Philadelphia, 
March  24th,  1832.  Her  paternal  grandfather  was  John  Breck 
inridge,  of  Kentucky,  once  Attorney-General  of  the  United 
States.  Her  father,  the  Rev.  John  Breckinridge,  D.  D.,  was  his 
second  son,  a  man  of  talent  and  influence,  from  whom  Margaret 
inherited  good  gifts  of  mind  and  heart,  and  an  honored  name. 
Her  mother,  who  was  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  of 
Princeton,  N.  J.,  died  when  Margaret  was  only  six  years  old,  at 
which  time  she  and  her  sister  Mary  went  to  live  with  their 
grandparents  at  Princeton.  Their  father  dying  three  years  after 
wards,  the  home  of  the  grandparents  became  their  permanent 
abode.  They  had  one  brother,  now  Judge  Breckinridge  of  St. 
Louis.  Margaret's  school-days  were  pleasantly  passed,  for  she 
had  a  genuine  love  of  study,  an  active  intellect,  and  a  very  reten 
tive  memory.  When  her  school  education  was  over,  she  still 
continued  her  studies,  and  never  gave  up  her  prescribed  course 
until  the  great  work  came  upon  her  which  absorbed  all  her  time 
and  powers.  In  the  year  1852  her  sister  married  Mr.  Peter  A. 
Porter  of  Niagara  Falls,  a  gentleman  of  culture  and  accomplish 
ments,  a  noble  man,  a  true  patriot.  At  his  house  the  resort  of 
literary  and  scientific  men,  the  shelter  of  the  poor  and  friendless, 
the  centre  of  sweet  social  life  and  domestic  peace,  Margaret  found 
for  a  time  a  happy  home. 

"Between  her  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Porter,  there  was  genuine 
sisterly  love,  a  fine  intellectual  sympathy,  and  a  deep  and  tender 
affection.  The  first  great  trial  of  Miss  Breckinridge's  life  was 
the  death  of  this  beloved  sister  wliich  occurred  in  1854,  only  two 
years  after  her  marriage.  She  died  of  cholera,  after  an  illness 
of  only  a  few  hours.  Margaret  had  left  her  but  a  few  days  be 
fore,  in  perfect  health.  The  shock  was  so  terrible  that  for  many 
years  she  could  not  speak  her  sister's  name  without  deep  emotion ; 
but  she  was  too  brave  and  too  truly  religious  to  allow  this  blow, 


MARGARET    ELIZABETH    BRECKTNRIDGE.  101 

dreadful  as  it  was,  to  impair  her  usefulness  or  unfit  her  for  her 
destined  work.  Her  religion  was  eminently  practical  and  ener 
getic.  She  was  a  constant  and  faithful  Sunday-school  teacher, 
and  devoted  her  attention  especially  to  the  colored  people  in  whom 
she  had  a  deep  interest.  She  had  become  by  inheritance  the 
owner  of  several  slaves  in  Kentucky,  who  w^ere  a  source  of  great 
anxiety  to  her,  and  the  will  of  her  father,  though  carefully  de 
signed  to  secure  their  freedom,  had  become  so  entangled  with 
state  laws,  subsequently  made,  as  to  prevent  her,  during  her  life, 
from  carrying  out  what  was  his  Avish  as  well  as  her  own.  By 
her  will  she  directed  that  they  should  be  freed  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  something  given  them  to  provide  against  the  first  uncertain 
ties  of  self-support. 

So  the  beginning  of  the  war  found  Margaret  ripe  and  ready 
for  her  noble  womanly  work ;  trained  to  self-reliance,  accustomed 
to  using  her  powers  in  the  service  of  others,  tender,  brave,  and 
enthusiastic,  chastened  by  a  life-long  sorrow,  she  longed  to  devote 
herself  to  her  country,  and  to  do  all  in  her  power  to  help  on  its 
noble  defenders.  During  the  first  year  of  the  struggle  duty  con 
strained  her  to  remain  at  home,  but  heart  and  hands  worked 
bravely  all  the  time,  and  even  her  ready  pen  was  pressed  into  the 
service. 

But  Margaret  could  not  be  satisfied  to  remain  with  the  Home- 
Guards.  She  must  be  close  to  the  scene  of  action  and  in  the 
foremost  ranks.  She  determined  to  become  a  hospital-nurse. 
Her  anxious  friends  combated  her  resolution  in  vain ;  they  felt 
that  her  slender  frame  and  excitable  temperament  could  not  bear 
the  stress  and  strain  of  hospital  work,  but  she  had  set  her  mark 
and  must  press  onward  let  life  or  death  be  the  issue.  In  April, 
1862,  Miss  Breckinridge  set  out  for  the  West,  stopping  a  few 
weeks  at  Baltimore  on  her  way.  Then  she  commenced  her  hos 
pital  service;  then,  too,  she  contracted  measles,  and,  by  the  time 
she  reached  Lexington,  Kentucky,  her  destination,  she  was  quite 
ill;  but  the  delay  was  only  temporary,  and  soon  she  was  again 


192 

absorbed  in  her  work.  A  guerrilla  raid,  under  John  Morgan, 
brought  her  face  to  face  with  the  realities  of  war,  and  soon  after, 
early  in  September  she  found  herself  in  a  beleaguered  city,  actu 
ally  in  the  grasp  of  the  Rebels,  Kirby  Smith  holding  possession 
of  Lexington  and  its  neighborhood  for  about  six  weeks.  It  is 
quite  evident  that  Miss  Breckinridge  improved  this  occasion  to 
air  her  loyal  sentiments  and  give  such  help  and  courage  to  Union 
ists  as  lay  in  her  power.  In  a  letter  written  just  after  this  inva 
sion  she  says,  "At  that  very  time,  a  train  of  ambulances,  bringing 
our  sick  and  wounded  from  Richmond,  was  leaving  town  on  its 
way  to  Cincinnati.  It  was  a  sight  to  stir  every  loyal  heart ;  and 
so  the  Union  people  thronged  round  them  to  cheer  them  up  with 
pleasant,  hopeful  words,  to  bid  them  God  speed,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  to  fill  their  haversacks  and  canteens.  We  wrent,  thinking 
it  possible  we  might  be  ordered  oif  by  the  guard,  but  they  only 
stood  off,  scowling  and  wondering. 

"  '  Good-by/  said  the  poor  fellows  from  the  ambulances, '  we're 
coming  back  as  soon  as  ever  we  get  well/ 

" '  Yes,  yes/  we  whispered,  for  there  were  spies  all  around  us, 
'and  every  one  of  you  bring  a  regiment  with  you.'" 

As  soon  as  these  alarms  were  over,  and  Kentucky  freed  from 
rebel  invaders,  Miss  Breckinridge  went  on  to  St.  Louis,  to  spend 
the  winter  with  her  brother.  As  soon  as  she  arrived,  she  began 
to  visit  the  hospitals  of  the  city  and  its  neighborhood,  but  her 
chief  work,  and  that  from  the  effects  of  which  she  never  recovered, 
was  the  service  she  undertook  upon  the  hospital  boats,  wThich  were 
sent  down  the  Mississippi  to  bring  up  the  sick  and  wounded  from 
the  posts  below.  She  made  two  excursions  of  this  kind,  full  of 
intense  experiences,  both  of  pleasure  and  pain.  These  boats  went 
down  the  river  empty  unless  they  chanced  to  carry  companies  of 
soldiers  to  rejoin  their  regiments,  but  they  returned  crowded  with 
the  sick  and  dying,  emaciated,  fever-stricken  men,  sadly  in  need 
of  tender  nursing  but  with  scarcely  a  single  comfort  at  command. 
Several  of  the  nurses  broke  down  under  this  arduous  and  difficult 


MARGARET    ELIZABETH    BRECKINRIDGE.  193 

service,  but  Margaret  congratulated  herself  that  she  had  held  out 
to  the  end.  These  expeditions  were  not  without  danger  as  well 
as  privation.  One  of  her  letters  records  a  narrow  escape.  "To 
give  you  an  idea  of  the  audacity  of  these  guerrillas;  while  we 
lay  at  Memphis  that  afternoon,  in  broad  daylight,  a  party  of  six, 
dressed  in  our  uniform,-  went  on  board  a  government  boat,  lying 
just  across  the  river,  and  asked  to  be  taken  as  passengers  six 
miles  up  the  river,  which  was  granted ;  but  they  had  no  sooner 
left  the  shore  than  they  drew  their  pistols,  overpowered  the  crew, 
and  made  them  go  up  eighteen  miles  to  meet  another  government 
boat  coming  down  loaded  with  stores,  tied  the  boats  together  and 
burned  them,  setting  the  crew  of  each  adrift  in  their  own  yawl, 
and  nobody  knew  it  till  they  reached  Memphis,  two  hours  later. 
Being  able  to  hear  nothing  of  the  wounded,  we  pushed  on  to 
Helena,  ninety  miles  below,  and  here  dangers  thickened.  We 
saw  the  guerrillas  burning  cotton,  with  our  own  eyes,  along  the 
shore,  we  saw  their  little  skiffs  hid  away  among  the  bushes  on 
the  shore;  and  just  before  we  got  to  Helena,  had  a  most  narrow 
escape  from  their  clutches.  A  signal  to  land  on  the  river  was  in 
ordinary  times  never  disregarded,  as  the  way  business  of  freight 
and  passengers  was  the  chief  profit  often  of  the  trip,  and  it  seems 
hard  for  pilots  and  captains  always  to  be  on  their  guard  against  a 
decoy.  At  this  landing  the  signal  was  given,  all  as  it  should  be, 
and  we  were  just  rounding  to,  when,  with  a  sudden  jerk,  the 
boat  swung  round  into  the  stream  again.  The  mistake  was  dis 
covered  in  time,  by  a  government  officer  on  board,  and  we  escaped 
an  ambush.  Just  think  !  we  might  have  been  prisoners  in  Mis 
sissippi  now,  but  God  meant  better  things  for  us  than  that." 

Her  tender  heart  was  moved  by  the  sufferings  of  the  wretched 
colored  people  at  Helena,  She  says,  "  But  oh !  the  contrabands ! 
my  heart  did  ache  for  them.  Such  wretched,  uncared-for,  sad- 
looking  creatures  I  never  saw.  They  come  in  such  swarms  that 
it  is  impossible  to  do  anything  for  them,  unless  benevolent  people 
take  the  thing  into  their  hands.  They  have  a  little  settlement  in 

25 


194  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

one  end  of  the  town,  and  the  government  furnishes  them  rations, 
but  they  cannot  all  get  work,  even  if  they  were  all  able  and 
willing  to  do  it ;  then  they  get  sick  from  exposure,  and  now  the 
small  pox  is  making  terrible  havoc  among  them.  They  have  a 
hospital  of  their  own,  and  one  of  our  Union  Aid  ladies  has  gone 
down  to  superintend  it,  and  get  it  into  some  order,  but  it  seems  as 
if  there  was  nothing  before  them  but  suffering  for  many  a  long 
day  to  come,  and  that  sad,  sad  truth  came  back  to  me  so  often  as 
I  went  about  among  them,  that  no  people  ever  gained  their  free 
dom  without  a  baptism  of  fire." 

Miss  Breckinridge  returned  to  St.  Louis  on  a  small  hospital- 
boat  on  which  there  were  one  hundred  and  sixty  patients  in  care 
of  herself  and  one  other  lady.  A  few  extracts  from  one  of  her 
letters  will  show  what  brave  work  it  gave  her  to  do. 

"It  was  on  Sunday  morning,  25th  of  January,  that  Mrs.  C. 
and  I  went  on  board  the  hospital  boat  which  had  received  its  sad 
freight  the  day  before,  and  was  to  leave  at  once  for  St.  Louis, 
and  it  would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  scene  which  presented 
itself  to  me  as  I  stood  in  the  door  of  the  cabin.  Lying  on  the 
floor,  with  nothing  under  them  but  a  tarpaulin  and  their  blankets, 
were  crowded  fifty  men,  many  of  them  witli  death  written  on 
their  faces;  and  looking  through  the  half-open  doors  of  the  state 
rooms,  we  saw  that  they  contained  as  many  more.  Young,  boy 
ish  faces,  old  and  thin  from  suffering,  great  restless  eyes  that  were 
fixed  on  nothing,  incoherent  ravings  of  those  who  were  wild  with 
fever,  and  hollow  coughs  on  every  side — this,  and  much  more 
that  I  do  not  want  to  recall,  was  our  welcome  to  our  new  work ; 
but,  as  we  passed  between  the  two  long  rows,  back  to  our  own 
cabin,  pleasant  smiles  came  to  the  lips  of  some,  others  looked 
after  us  wonderingly,  and  one  poor  boy  whispered,  'Oh,  but  it 
is  good  to  see  the  ladies  come  in!'  I  took  one  long  look  into 
Mrs.  C.'s  eyes  to  see  how  much  strength  and  counige  was  hidden 
in  them.  We  asked  each  other,  not  in  words,  but  in  those  fine 
electric  thrills  by  which  one  soul  questions  another,  '  Can  we 


MARGARET    ELIZABETH    BEECKIXEIDGE.  195 

bring  strength,  and  hope,  and  comfort  to  these  poor  suffering 
men?'  and  the  answer  was,  'Yes,  by  God's  help  we  will!'  The 
first  thing  was  to  give  them  something  like  a  comfortable  bed, 
and,  Sunday  though  it  was,  we  went  to  work  to  run  up  our 
sheets  into  bed-sacks.  Every  man  that  had  strength  enough  to 
stagger  was  pressed  into  the  service,  and  by  night  most  of  them 
had  something  softer  than  a  tarpaulin  to  sleep  on.  'Oh,  I  am 
so  comfortable  now!'  some  of  them  said;  'I  think  I  can  sleep 
to-night,'  exclaimed  one  little  fellow,  half-laughing  with  plea 
sure.  The  next  thing  was  to  provide  something  that  sick  people 
could  eat,  for  coffee  and  bread  was  poor  food  for  most  of  them. 
We  had  two  little  stoves,  one  in  the  cabin  and  one  in  the  cham 
bermaid's  room,  and  here,  the  whole  time  we  were  on  board,  we 
had  to  do  the  cooking  for  a  hundred  men.  Twenty  times  that 
day  I  fully  made  up  my  mind  to  cry  with  vexation,  and  twenty 
times  that  day  I  laughed  instead ;  and  surely,  a  kettle  of  tea  was 
never  made  under  so  many  difficulties  as  the  one  I  made  that 
morning.  The  kettle  lid  was  not  to  be  found,  the  water  simmered 
and  sang  at  its  leisure,  and  when  I  asked  for  the  poker  I  could 
get  nothing  but  an  old  bayonet,  and,  all  the  time,  through  the 
half-open  door  behind  me,  I  heard  the  poor  hungry  fellows  ask 
ing  the  nurses,  '  Where  is  that  tea  the  lady  promised  me?'  or 
'When  will  my  toast  come?'  But  there  must  be  an  end  to  all 
things,  and  when  I  carried  them  their  tea  and  toast,  and  heard 
them  pronounce  it  'plaguey  good,'  and  '  awful  nice,'  it  was  more 
than  a  recompense  for  all  the  worry. 

"  One  great  trouble  was  the  intense  cold.  We  could  not  keep 
life  in  some  of  the  poor  emaciated  frames.  'Oh  dear!  I  shall 
freeze  to  death !'  one  poor  little  fellow  groaned,  as  I  passed  him. 
Blankets  seemed  to  have  no  effect  upon  them,  and  at  last  we  had 
to  keep  canteens  filled  with  boiling  water  at  their  feet.  *  *  *  *  * 

"There  was  one  poor  boy  about  whom  from  the  first  I  had 
been  very  anxious.  He  drooped  and  faded  from  day  to  day 
before  my  e yes.  Nothing  but  constant  stimulants  seemed  to  keep 


196 


him  alive,  and,  at  last  I  summoned  courage  to  tell  him — oh,  how 
hard  it  was! — that  he  could  not  live  many  hours.  'Are  you 
willing  to  die?'  I  asked  him.  He  closed  his  eyes,  and  was  silent 
a  moment;  then  came  that  passionate  exclamation  which  I  have 
heard  so  often,  'My  mother,  oh!  my  mother!'  and,  to  the  last, 
though  I  believe  God  gave  him  strength  to  trust  in  Christ,  and 
willingness  to  die,  he  longed  for  his  mother.  I  had  to  leave 
him,  and,  not  long  after,  he  sent  for  me  to  come,  that  he  was 
dying,  and  wanted  me  to  sing  to  him.  He  prayed  for  himself  in 
the  most  touching  words ;  he  confessed  that  he  had  been  a  wicked 
boy,  and  then  with  one  last  message  for  that  dear  mother,  turned 
his  face  to  the  pillow  and  died;  and  so,  one  by  one,  Ave  saw  them 
pass  away,  and  all  the  little  keepsakes  and  treasures  they  had 
loved  and  kept  about  them,  laid  away  to  be  sent  home  to  those 
they  should  never  see  again.  Oh,  it  was  heart-breaking  to 
see  that!" 

After  the  "sad  freight"  had  reached  its  destination,  and  the 
care  and  responsibility  are  over,  true  woman  that  she  is,  she 
breaks  down  and  cries  over  it  all,  but  brightens  up,  and  looking 
back  upon  it  declares:  "I  certainly  never  had  so  much  comfort 
and  satisfaction  in  anything  in  all  my  life,  and  the  tearful  thanks 
of  those  who  thought  in  their  gratitude  that  they  owed  a  great 
deal  more  to  us  than  they  did,  the  blessings  breathed  from  dying 
lips,  and  the  comfort  it  has  been  to  friends  at  home  to  hear  all 
about  the  last  sad  hours  of  those  they  love,  and  know  their  dying 
messages  of  love  to  them;  all  this  is  a  rich,  and  full,  and  over 
flowing  reward  for  any  labor  and  for  any  sacrifice."  Again  she 
says :  "  There  is  a  soldier's  song  of  which  they  are  very  fond,  one 
verse  of  which  often  conies  back  to  me : 

'So  I've  had  a  sight  of  drilling, 

And  I've  roughed  it  many  days  ; 
Yes,  and  death  has  nearly  had  me, 
Yet,  I  think,  the  service  pays.' 

Indeed  it  does, — richly,  abundantly,  blessedly,  and  I  thank  God 


MARGARET    ELIZABETH    BRECKINRIDGE.  197 

that  he  has  honored  me  by  letting  me  do  a  little  and  suffer  a  little 
for  this  grand  old  Union,  and  the  dear,  brave  fellows  who  are 
fighting  for  it." 

Early  in  March  she  returned  to  St.  Louis,  expecting  to  make 
another  trip  down  the  river,  but  her  work  was  nearly  over,  and 
the  seeds  of  disease  sown  in  her  winter's  campaign  were  already 
overmastering  her  delicate  constitution.  She  determined  to  go 
eastward  for  rest  and  recovery,  intending  to  return  in  the 
autumn  and  fix  herself  in  one  of  the  Western  hospitals,  where 
she  could  devote  herself  to  her  beloved  work  while  the  war  lasted. 
At  this  time  she  writes  to  her  Eastern  friends :  "  I  shall  soon  turn 
my  face  eastward,  and  I  have  more  and  more  to  do  as  my  time 
here  grows  shorter.  I  have  been  at  the  hospital  every  day  this 
week,  and  at  the  Government  rooms,  where  we  prepare  the 
Government  work  for  the  poor  women,  four  hundred  of  whom 
we  supply  with  work  every  week.  I  have  also  a  family  of  refu 
gees  to  look  after,  so  I  do  not  lack  employment." 

Early  in  June,  Miss  Breckinridge  reached  Niagara  on  her  way 
to  the  East,  where  she  remained  for  a  month.  Eor  a  year  she 
struggled  against  disease  and  weakness,  longing  all  the  time  to  be 
at  work  a^ain,  making  vain  plans  for  the  time  when  she  should 

cD  "  o  i. 

be  "  well  and  strong,  and  able  to  go  back  to  the  hospitals."  With 
this  cherished  scheme  in  view  she  went  in  the  early  part  of  May, 
1864,  into  the  Episcopal  Hospital  in  Philadelphia,  that  she  might 
acquire  experience  in  nursing,  especially  in  surgical  cases,  so  that 
in  the  autumn,  she  could  begin  her  labor  of  love  among  the 
soldiers  more  efficiently  and  confidently  than  before.  She  went 
to  work  with  her  usual  energy  and  promptness,  following  the 
surgical  nurse  every  day  through  the  wards,  learning  the  best 
methods  of  bandaging  and  treating  the  various  wounds.  She 
was  not  satisfied  with  merely  seeing  this  done,  but  often  washed 
and  dressed  the  wounds  with  her  own  hands,  saying,  "  I  shall  be 
able  to  do  this  for  the  soldiers  when  I  get  back  to  the  army." 
The  patients  could  not  understand  this,  and  would  often  expostu- 


198 

late,  saying,  "Oh  no,  Miss,  that  is  not  for  the  like  of  you  to  do!" 
but  she  would  playfully  insist  and  have  her  way.  Nor  was  she 
satisfied  to  gain  so  much  without  giving  something  in  return. 
She  went  from  bed  to  bed,  encouraging  the  despondent,  cheering 
the  w^eak  and  miserable,  reading  to  them  from  her  little  Testa 
ment,  and  singing  sweet  hymns  at  twilight, — a  ministering  angel 
here  as  well  as  on  the  hospital-boats  011  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  2d  of  June  she  had  an  attack  of  erysipelas,  which  how 
ever  was  not  considered  alarming,  and  under  which  she  was 
patient  and  cheerful. 

Then  came  news  of  the  fighting  before  Richmond  and  of  the 
probability  that  her  brother-in-law,  Colonel  Porter,*  had  fallen. 


*  This  truly  Christian  hero,  the  son  of  General  Peter  A.  Porter  of  Niagara 
Falls,  was  one  of  those  rare  spirits,  who  surrounded  by  everything  which  could 
make  life  blissful,  were  led  by  the  promptings  of  a  lofty  and  self-sacrificing 
patriotism  to  devote  their  lives  to  their  country.  He  was  killed  in  the  severe 
battle  of  June  3,  1864.  His  first  wife  who  had  deceased  some  years  before  was 
a  sister  of  Margaret  Breckinridge,  and  the  second  who  survived  him  was  her 
cousin.  One  of  the  delegates  of  the  Christian  Commission  writes  concerning 
him : — "  Colonel  Peter  B.  Porter,  of  Niagara  Falls,  commanding  the  8th  New 
York  heavy  artillery,  was  killed  within  five  or  six  rods  of  the  rebel  lines. 
Seven  wounds  were  found  upon  his  body.  One  in  his  neck,  one  between  his 
shoulders,  one  on  the  right  side,  and  lower  part  of  the  stomach,  one  on  the  left, 
and  near  his  heart,  and  two  in  his  legs.  The  evening  before  he  said,  'that  if 
the  charge  was  made  he  would  not  come  out  alive;  but  that  if  required,  he 
would  go  into  it.'  The  last  words  heard  from  him  were :  '  Boys,  follow  me.'  We 
notice  the  following  extract  from  his  will,  which  was  made  before  entering  the 
service,  which  shows  the  man : 

"  Feeling  to  its  full  extent  the  probability  that  I  may  not  return  from  the  path 
of  duty  on  which  I  have  entered — if  it  please  God  that  it  be  so — I  can  say  with 
truth  I  have  entered  on  the  career  of  danger  with  no  ambitious  aspirations,  nor 
with  the  idea  that  I  am  fitted  by  nature  or  experience  to  be  of  any  important 
service  to  the  Government ;  but  in  obedience  to  the  call  of  duty  demanding 
every  citizen  to  contribute  what  he  could  in  means,  labor,  or  life  to  sustain  the 
government  of  his  country ;  a  sacrifice  made,  too,  the  more  willingly  by  me 
when  I  consider  how  singularly  benefited  I  have  been  by  the  institutions  of  this 
land,  and  that  up  to  this  time  all  the  blessings  of  life  have  been  showered  upon 
me  beyond  what  falls  usually  to  the  lot  of  man." 


MARGARET    ELIZABETH    BRECKIN RIDGE.  199 

Her  friends  concealed  it  from  her  until  the  probability  became  a 
sad  certainty,  and  then  they  were  obliged  to  reveal  it  to  her. 
The  blow  fell  upon  her  with  overwhelming  force.  One  wild  cry 
of  agony,  one  hour  of  unmitigated  sorrow,  and  then  she  sweetly 
and  submissively  bowed  herself  to  the  will  of  her  Heavenly 
Father,  and  was  still ;  but  the  shock  was  too  great  for  the  wearied 
body  and  the  bereaved  heart.  Gathering  up  her  small  remnant 
of  strength  and  courage  she  went  to  Baltimore  to  join  the  afflicted 
family  of  Colonel  Porter,  saying  characteristically,  "  I  can  do 
more  good  with  them  than  anywhere  else  just  now.'7  After  a 
week's  rest  in  Baltimore  she  proceeded  with  them  to  Niagara, 
bearing  the  journey  apparently  well,  but  the  night  after  her  arrival 
she  became  alarmingly  ill,  and  it  was  soon  evident  that  she  could 
not  recover  from  her  extreme  exhaustion  and  prostration.  For 
five  weeks  her  life  hung  trembling  in  the  balance,  and  then  the 
silver  cord  was  loosed  and  she  went  to  join  her  dear  ones  gone 
before. 

"  Underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms,"  she  said  to  a  friend 
who  bent  anxiously  over  her  during  her  sickness.  Yes,  "the 
everlasting  arms"  upheld  her  in  all  her  courageous  heroic  earthly 
work;  they  cradle  her  spirit  now  in  eternal  rest. 


MRS.    STEPHEN    BARKER. 


RS.  BARKER  is  a  lady  of  great  refinement  and  high 
culture,  the  sister  of  the  Hon.  William  Whiting,  late 
Attorney-General  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Stephen  Barker,  during  the  war,  Chaplain  of  the 
First  Massachusetts  Heavy  Artillery. 

This  regiment  was  organized  in  July,  1861,  as  the  Fourteenth 
Massachusetts  Infantry  (but  afterwards  changed  as  above)  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  William  B.  Green,  of  Boston,  and  was 
immediately  ordered  to  Fort  Albany,  which  was  then  an  outpost 
of  defense  guarding  the  Long  Bridge  over  the  Potomac,  near 
Washington. 

Having  resolved  to  share  the  fortunes  of  this  regiment  in  the 
service  of  its  hospitals,  Mrs.  Barker  followed  it  to  Washington 
in  August,  and  remained  in  that  city  six  months  before  suitable 
quarters  were  arranged  for  her  at  the  fort. 

During  her  stay  in  Washington,  she  spent  much  of  her  time  in 
visiting  hospitals,  and  in  ministering  to  their  suffering  inmates. 
Especially  was  this  the  case  with  the  E.  Street  Infirmary,  which 
was  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  autumn  of  that  year.  After  the  fire 
the  inmates  were  distributed  to  other  hospitals,  except  a  few 
whose  wounds  would  not  admit  of  a  removal.  These  were  col 
lected  together  in  a  small  brick  school-house,  which  stands  on  the 
corner  of  the  lot  now  occupied  by  the  Judiciary  Square  Hospital, 
and  there  was  had  the  first  Thai  ksgiving  Dinner  which  was 
given  in  an  army  hospital. 

200 


MES.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  201 

After  dinner,  which  was  made  as  nice  and  home-like  as  possible, 
they  played  games  of  checkers,  chess,  and  backgammon  on  some 
new  boards  presented  from  the  supplies  of  the  Sanitary  Commis 
sion,  and  Mrs.  Barker  read  aloud  "The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth." 
This  occupied  all  the  afternoon  and  made  the  day  seem  so  short 
to  these  poor  convalescents  that  the}  all  confessed  afterwards  that 
they  had  no  idea,  nor  expectation  that  they  could  so  enjoy  a  day 
which  they  had  hoped  to  spend  at  home ;  and  they  always  remem 
bered  and  spoke  of  it  with  pleasure. 

This  was  a  new  and  entirely  exceptional  experience  to  Mrs. 
Barker.  Like  all  the  ladies  who  have  gone  out  as  volunteer 
nurses  or  helps  in  the  hospitals,  she  had  her  whole  duty  to  learn. 
In  this  she  was  aided  by  a  sound  judgment,  and  an  evident 
natural  capacity  and  executive  ability.  Without  rules  or  instruc 
tions  in  hospital  visiting,  she  had  to  learn  by  experience  the  best 
methods  of  aiding  sick  soldiers  without  coming  into  conflict  with 
the  regulations  peculiar  to  military  hospitals.  Of  course,  no 
useful  work  could  be  accomplished  without  the  sanction  and  con 
fidence  of  the  surgeons,  and  these  could  only  be  won  by  strict  and 
honorable  obedience  to  orders. 

The  first  duty  was  to  learn  what  Government  supplies  could 
properly  be  expected  in  the  hospitals ;  next  to  be  sure  that  where 
wanting  they  were  not  withheld  by  the  ignorance  or  carelessness 
of  the  sub-officials ;  and  lastly  that  the  soldier  was  sincere  and 
reliable  in  the  statement  of  his  wants.  By  degrees  these  ques 
tions  received  their  natural  solution;  and  the  large  discretionary 
power  granted  by  the  surgeons,  and  the  generous  confidence  and 
aid  extended  by  the  Sanitary  Commission,  in  furnishing  whatever 
supplies  she  asked  for,  soon  gave  Mrs.  Barker  all  the  facilities 
she  desired  for  her  useful  and  engrossing  work. 

In  March,  1862,  Mrs.  Barker  removed  to  Fort  Albany,  and 
systematically  commenced  the  work  which  had  first  induced  her 
to  leave  her  home.  This  work  was  substantially  the  same  that  she 
had  done  in  Washington,  but  was  confined  to  the  Regimental 

26 


202 

Hospitals.  But  it  was  for  many  reasons  pleasanter  and  more  in 
teresting.  As  the  wife  of  the  Chaplain  of  the  Regiment,  the  men 
all  recognized  the  fitness  of  her  position,  and  she  shared  with  him 
all  the  duties,  not  strictly  clerical,  of  his  office,  finding  great  hap 
piness  in  their  mutual  usefulness  and  sustaining  power.  She 
also  saw  the  same  men  oftener,  and  became  better  acquainted,  and 
more  deeply  interested  in  their  individual  conditions,  and  she  had 
here  facilities  at  her  command  for  the  preparation  of  all  the  little 
luxuries  and  delicacies  demanded  by  special  cases. 

While  the  regiment  held  Fort  Albany,  and  others  of  the  forts 
forming  the  defenses  of  Washington,  the  officers'  quarters  were 
always  such  as  to  furnish  a  comfortable  home,  and  Mrs.  Barker 
had,  consequently,  none  of  the  exposures  and  hardships  of  those 
who  followed  the  army  and  labored  in  the  field.  As  she,  herself, 
lias  written  in  a  private  letter — "It  Avas  no  sacrifice  to  go  to  the 
army,  because  my  husband  was  in  it,  and  it  would  have  been 
much  harder  to  stay  at  home  than  to  go  with  him.*  :  *  I  can 
not  even  claim  the  merit  of  acting  from  a  sense  of  duty — for  I 
wanted  to  work  for  the  soldiers,  and  should  have  been  desperately 
disappointed  had  I  been  prevented  from  doing  it." 

And  so,  with  a  high  heart,  and  an  unselfish  spirit,  which  dis 
claimed  all  merit  in  sacrifice,  and  even  the  existence  of  the  sacri 
fice,  she  entered  upon  and  fulfilled  to  the  end  the  arduous  and 
painful  duties  which  devolved  upon  her. 

For  nearly  two  years  she  continued  in  unremitting  attendance 
upon  the  regimental  hospitals,  except  when  briefly  called  home  to 
the  sick  and  dying  bed  of  her  father. 

All  this  time  her  dependence  for  hospital  comforts  was  upon 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  for  though  the  regiment  was  performing 
the  duties  of  a  garrison  it  was  not  so  considered  by  the  War 
Department,  and  the  hospital  received  none  of  the  furnishings  it 
would  have  been  entitled  to  as  a  Post  Hospital.  Most  of  the 
hospital  bedding  and  clothing,  as  well  as  delicacies  of  diet  came 
from  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  a  little  money  contributed 


MRS.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  203 

from  private  sources  helped  to  procure  the  needed  furniture. 
Mrs.  Barker  found  this  "camp  life"  absorbing  and  interesting. 
She  became  identified  with  the  regiment  and  was  accustomed  to 
speak  of  it  as  a  part  of  herself.  And  even  more  closely  and  inti 
mately  did  she  identify  herself  with  her  suffering  patients  in  the 
hospital. 

On  Sundays,  while  the  chaplain  w7as  about  his  regular  duties, 
she  was  accustomed  to  have  a  little  service  of  her  own  for  the 
patients,  which  mostly  consisted  in  reading  aloud  a  printed  ser 
mon  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  which  appeared  in  the 
Weekly  Traveller,  and  which  was  always  listened  to  with  eager 
interest. 

The  chaplain's  quarters  were  close  by  the  hospital,  and  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  and  till  a  late  hour  of  the  night  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Barker  could  assure  themselves  of  the  condition  and  wants  of  any 
of  the  patients,  and  be  instantly  ready  to  minister  to  them.  Mrs. 
Barker,  especially,  bore  them  continually  in  her  thoughts,  and 
though  not  with  them,  her  heart  and  time  were  given  to  the 
work  of  consolation,  either  by  adding  to  the  comforts  of  the  body 
or  the  mind. 

In  January,  1864,  it  became  evident  to  Mrs.  Barker  that  she 
could  serve  in  the  hospitals  more  effectually  by  living  in  Wash 
ington,  than  by  remaining  at  Fort  Albany.  She  therefore  offered 
her  services  to  the  Sanitary  Commission  without  other  compen 
sation  than  the  expenses  of  her  board,  and  making  no  stipulation 
as  to  the  nature  of  her  duties,  but  only  that  she  might  remain 
within  reach  of  the  regimental  hospital,  to  which  she  had  so  long 
been  devoted. 

Just  at  this  time  the  Commission  had  determined  to  secure  a 
more  sure  and  thorough  personal  distribution  of  the  articles  in 
tended  for  soldiers,  and  she  was  requested  to  become  a  visitor  in 
certain  hospitals  in  Washington.  It  was  desirable  to  visit  bed 
sides,  as  before,  but  henceforth  as  a  representative  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  with  a  wider  range  of  duties,  and  a  proportionate 


204  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

increase  of  facilities.  Soldiers  were  complaining  that  they  saw 
nothing  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  when  the  shirts  they  wore, 
the  fruits  they  ate,  the  stationery  they  used,  and  numerous  other 
comforts  from  the  Commission  abounded  in  the  hospitals.  Mrs. 
Barker  found  that  she  had  only  to  refuse  the  thanks  which  she 
constantly  received,  and  refer  them  to  the  proper  object,  to  see  a 
marked  change  in  the  feeling  of  the  sick  toward  the  Sanitary 
Commission.  And  she  was  so  fully  convinced  of  the  beneficial 
results  of  this  remarkable  organization,  that  she  found  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  doing  this. 

In  all  other  respects  her  work  was  unchanged.  There  was  the 
same  need  of  cheering  influences — the  writing  of  letters  and  pro 
curing  of  books,  and  obtaining  of  information.  There  were  the 
thousand  varied  calls  for  sympathy  and  care  which  kept  one  con 
stantly  on  the  keenest  strain  of  active  life,  so  that  she  came  to  feel 
that  no  gift,  grace,  or  accomplishment  could  be  spared  without 
leaving  something  wanting  of  a  perfect  woman's  work  in  the  hos 
pitals. 

Nine  hospitals,  in  addition  to  the  regimental  hospital,  which 
she  still  thought  of  as  her  "own,"  were  assigned  her.  Of  these 
Harewood  contained  nearly  as  many  patients  as  all  the  others. 
During  the  summer  of  1864,  its  wards  and  tents  held  twenty- 
eight  hundred  patients.  It  was  Mrs.  Barker's  custom  to  com 
mence  here  every  Monday  morning  at  the  First  Ward,  doing  all 
she  saw  needful  as  she  went  along,  and  to  go  on  as  far  as  she 
could  before  two  o'clock,  when  she  went  to  dinner.  In  the  after 
noon  she  would  visit  one  of  the  smaller  hospitals,  all  of  whose 
inmates  she  could  see  in  the  course  of  one  visit,  and  devote  the 
whole  afternoon  entirely  to  that  hospital. 

The  next  morning  she  would  begin  again  at  Harewood, 
where  she  stopped  the  day  before,  doing  all  she  could  there,  pre 
vious  to  two  o'clock,  and  devoting  the  afternoon  to  a  smaller  hos 
pital.  When  Harewood  was  finished,  two  hospitals  might  be 


MRS.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  205 

visited  in  a  day,  and  in  this  manner  she  would  complete  the  entire 
round  weekly. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  speak  to  every  man,  for  on  being  recog 
nized  as  a  Sanitary  Visitor  the  men  would  tell  her  their  wants, 
and  her  eye  was  'sufficiently  practiced  to  discern  where  undue 
shyness  prevented  any  from  speaking  of  them.  An  assistant 
always  went  with  her,  who  drove  the  horses,  and  who,  by  his 
knowledge  of  German,  was  a  great  help  in  understanding  the 
foreign  soldiers.  They  carried  a  variety  of  common  articles  with 
them,  so  that  the  larger  proportion  of  the  wants  could  be  supplied 
on  the  spot.  In  this  way  a  constant  distribution  was  going  on, 
in  all  the  hospitals  of  Washington,  whereby  the  soldiers  received 
what  was  sent  for  them  with  certainty  and  promptness. 

In  the  meantime  the  First  Heavy  Artillery  had  been  ordered 
to  join  the  army  before  Petersburg.  On  the  fourth  day  after  it 
left  the  forts  round  Washington,  it  lost  two  hundred  men  killed, 
wounded  and  taken  prisoners.  As  soon  as  the  sick  or  wounded 
men  began  to  be  sent  back  to  Washington,  Mrs.  Barker  was  noti 
fied  of  it  by  her  husband,  and  sought  them  out  to  make  them  the 
objects  of  her  special  care. 

At  the  same  time  the  soldiers  of  this  regiment,  in  the  field, 
were  constantly  confiding  money  and  mementoes  to  Mr.  Barker, 
to  be  sent  to  Mrs.  Barker  by  returning  Sanitary  Agents,  and  for 
warded  by  her  to  their  families  in  New  England.  Often  she  gave 
up  the  entire  day  to  the  preparation  of  these  little  packages  for 
the  express,  and  to  the  writing  of  letters  to  each  person  who  was 
to  receive  a  package,  containing  messages,  and  a  request  for  a 
reply  when  the  money  was  received.  Large  as  this  business  was, 
she  never  entrusted  it  to  any  hands  but  her  own,  and  though  she 
sent  over  two  thousand  dollars  in  small  sums,  and  numerous 
mementoes,  she  never  lost  an  article  of  all  that  were  transmitted 
by  express. 

But  whatever  she  had  on  hand,  it  was,  at  this  time,  an  especial 
duty  to  attend  to  any  person  who  desired  a  more  thorough  under- 


206 

standing  of  the  work  of  hospitals;  and  many  days  were  thus 
spent  with  strangers  who  had  no  other  means  of  access  to  the 
information  they  desired,  except  through  one  whose  time  could 
be  given  to  such  purposes. 

These  somewhat  minute  details  of  Mrs.  Barker's  labors  are 
given  as  being  peculiar  to  the  department  of  service  in  which  she 
worked,  and  to  which  she  so  conscientiously  devoted  herself  for 
such  a  length  of  time. 

In  this  way  she  toiled  on  until  December,  1864,  when  a  request 
was  made  by  the  Women's  Central  Association  that  a  hospital 
visitor  might  be  sent  to  the  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies  in  the  State 
of  New  York.  Few  of  these  had  ever  seen  a  person  actually 
engaged  in  hospital  work,  and  it  was  thought  advisable  to  assure 
them  that  their  labors  were  not  only  needed,  but  that  their  results 
really  reached  and  benefited  the  sick  soldiers. 

Mrs.  Barker  was  chosen  as  this  representative,  and  the  pro 
gramme  included  the  services  of  Mr.  Barker,  whose  regiment  was 
now  mustered  out  of  service,  as  a  lecturer  before  general  audi 
ences,  while  Mrs.  Barker  met  the  Aid  Societies  in  the  same 
places.  During  the  month  of  December,  1864,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Barker,  in  pursuance  of  this '  plan,  visited  Harlem,  Brooklyn, 
Astoria,  Hastings,  Irvington,  Rhinebeck,  Albany,  Troy,  Rome, 
Syracuse,  Auburn,  and  Buffalo,  presenting  the  needs  of  the  sol 
dier,  and  the  benefits  of  the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  to 
the  people  generally,  and  to  the  societies  in  particular,  with  great 
acceptance,  and  to  the  ultimate  benefit  of  the  cause.  This  tour 
accomplished,  Mrs.  Barker  returned  to  her  hospital  work  in 
Washington. 

After  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army,  Mrs.  Barker  visited  Rich 
mond  and  Petersburg,  and  as  she  walked  the  deserted  streets  of 
those  fallen  cities,  she  felt  that  her  work  was  nearly  done. 
Almost  four  years,  in  storm  and  in  sunshine,  in  heat  and  in  cold, 
in  hope  and  in  discouragement  she  had  ceaselessly  toiled  on,  and 


MRS.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  207 

all  along  her  path  were  strewed  the  blessings  of  thousands  of 
grateful  hearts. 

The  increasing  heats  of  summer  warned  her  that  she  could  not 
withstand  the  influences  of  another  season  of  hard  work  in  a  warm 
climate,  and  on  the  day  of  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln, 
she  left  Washington  for  Boston. 

o 

Mrs.  Barker  had  been  at  home  about  six  weeks  when  a  new 
call  for  effort  came,  on  the  return  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
encamped  around  Washington  previous  to  its  final  march  for 
home.  To  it  was  presently  added  the  Veterans  of  Sherman's 
grand  march,  and  all  were  in  a  state  of  destitution.  The  follow 
ing  extract  from  the  Report  of  the  Field  Relief  Service  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission  with  the  Armies  of  the  Potomac,  Georgia, 
and  Tennessee,  in  the  Department  of  Washington,  May  and  June, 
1865,  gives  a  much  better  idea  of  the  work  required  than  could 
otherwise  be  presented. 

"  Armies,  the  aggregate  strength  of  which  must  have  exceeded 
two  hundred  thousand  men,  Avere  rapidly  assembling  around  this 
city,  previous  to  the  grand  review  and  their  disbandment.  These 
men  were  the  travel-worn  veterans  of  Sherman,  and  the  battle- 
stained  heroes  of  the  glorious  old  Army  of  the  Potomac,  men  of 
whom  the  nation  is  already  proud,  and  whom  history  will  teach 
our  children  to  venerate.  Alas !  that  veterans  require  more  than 
'field  rations;'  that  heroes  will  wear  out  or  throw  away  their 
clothes,  or  become  diseased  with  scurvy  or  chronic  diarrhoea. 

"The  Army  of  the  West  had  marched  almost  two  thousand 
miles,  subsisting  from  Atlanta  to  the  ocean  almost  wholly  upon 
the  country  through  which  it  passed.  When  it  entered  the  des 
titute  regions  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  it  became  affected 
with  scorbutic  diseases.  A  return  to  the  ordinary  marching 
rations  gave  the  men  plenty  to  eat,  but  no  vegetables.  Nor  had 
foraging  put  them  in  a  condition  to  bear  renewed  privation. 

"The  Commissary  Department  issued  vegetables  in  such  small 
quantities  that  they  did  not  affect  the  condition  of  the  troops  in 


208 

any  appreciable  degree.  Surgeons  immediately  sought  the  Sani 
tary  Commission.  The  demand  soon  became  greater  than  the 
supply.  At  first  they  wanted  nothing  but  vegetables,  for  having 
these,  they  said,  all  other  discomforts  would  become  as  nothing. 

"After  we  had  secured  an  organization  through  the  return  of 
agents  and  the  arrival  of  transportation,  a  division  of  labor  was 
made,  resulting  ultimately  in  three  departments,  more  or  less  dis 
tinct.  These  were: 

"First,  the  supply  of  vegetables ; 

"Second,  the  depots  for  hospital  and  miscellaneous  supplies; 
and, 

"  Third,  the  visitation  of  troops  for  the  purpose  of  direct  distri 
bution  of  small  articles  of  necessity  or  comfort." 

These  men,  war-worn — and  many  of  them  sick — veterans,  were 
without  money,  often  in  rags,  or  destitute  of  needful  clothing,  and 
they  were  not  to  be  paid  until  they  Avere  mustered  out  of  the 
service  in  their  respective  States.  Generous,  thorough  and  rapid 
distribution  was  desirable,  and  all  the  regular  hospital  visitors,  as 
well  as  others  temporarily  employed  in  the  work,  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  field  distribution.  In  twenty  days,  such  was  the 
system  and  expedition  used,  every  regiment,  and  all  men  on  de 
tached  duty,  had  been  visited  and  supplied  with  necessaries  on 
their  camping  grounds ;  and  frequent  expressions  of  gratitude 
from  officers  and  men,  attested  that  a  great  work  had  been  suc 
cessfully  accomplished. 

This  was  the  conclusion  of  Mrs.  Barker's  army  work,  and  what 
it  was,  how  thorough,  kind,  and  every  way  excellent  wre  cannot 
better  tell  than  by  appending  to  this  sketch  her  own  report  to  the 
Chief  of  Field  Relief  Corps. 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  29,  1865. 

"A.  M.  SPERRY — Sir:  It  was  my  privilege  to  witness  the  advance  of  the 
army  in  the  spring  of  1862,  and  the  care  of  soldiers  in  camp  and  hospital 
having  occupied  all  my  time  since  then,  it  was  therefore  gratifying  to  close  my 
labors  by  welcoming  the  returning  army  to  the  same  camping  grounds  it  left 
four  years  ago.  The  circumstances  under  which  it  went  forth  and  returned 


MRS.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  209 

were  so  unlike,  the  contrast  between  our  tremulous  farewell  and  our  exultant 
welcome  so  extreme,  that  it  has  been  difficult  to  find  an  expression  suited  to 
the  hour.  The  Sanitary  Commission  adopted  the  one  method  by  which  alone 
it  could  give  for  itself  this  expression.  It  sent  out  its  agents  to  visit  every 
regiment  and  all  soldiers  on  detached  duty,  to  ascertain  and  relieve  their  wants, 
and  by  words  and  acts  of  kindness  to  assure  them  of  the  deep  and  heartfelt  gra 
titude  of  the  nation  for  their  heroic  sufferings  and  achievements. 

"The  Second,  Fifth,  Sixth,  Ninth,  Fourteenth,  Fifteenth,  Seventeenth,  and 
Twentieth  army  corps  have  been  encamped  about  the  capital.  They  numbered 
over  two  hundred  thousand  men. 

"Our  first  work  was  to  establish  stations  for  sanitary  stores  in  the  camps, 
wherever  it  was  practicable,  to  which  soldiers  might  come  for  the  supply  of 
their  wants  without  the  trouble  of  getting  passes  into  Washington.  Our  Field 
Belief  Agents,  who  have  followed  the  army  from  point  to  point,  called  on  the 
officers  to  inform  them  of  our  storehouse  for  supplies  of  vegetables  and  pickles. 
The  report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Field  Belief  will  show  how  great  a  work 
has  been  done  for  the  army  in  these  respects.  How  great  has  been  the  need  of 
a  full  and  generous  distribution  of  the  articles  of  food  and  clothing  may  be 
realized  by  the  fact,  that  here  were  men  unpaid  for  the  last  six  months,  and  yet 
to  remain  so  till  mustered  out  of  the  service  in  their  respective  States ;  whose 
government  accounts  were  closed,  with  no  sutlers  in  their  regiments,  and  no 
credit  anywhere.  Every  market-day,  numbers  of  these  war-worn  veterans  have 
been  seen  asking  for  some  green  vegetable  from  the  tempting  piles,  which  were 
forbidden  fruits  to  them. 

"  In  order  to  make  our  work  in  the  army  as  thorough,  rapid,  and  effective  as 
possible,  it  was  decided  to  accept  the  services  of  the  '  Hospital  Visitors.'  They 
have  been  at  home  in  the  hospitals  ever  since  the  war  began,  but  never  in  the 
camp.  But  we  believed  that  even  here  they  would  be  safe,  and  the  gifts  they 
brought  would  be  more  valued  because  brought  by  them. 

"Six  ladies  have  been  employed  by  the  Sanitary  Commission  as  Hospital 
Visitors.  These  were  temporarily  transferred  from  their  hospitals  to  the  field. 

"The  Second  and  Fifth  Corps  were  visited  by  Mrs.  Steel  and  Miss  Abby 
Francis. 

"The  Sixth  Corps  by  Mrs.  Johnson,  Miss  Armstrong,  and  Mrs.  Barker;  one 
in  each  division. 

"The  Ninth  Corps  by  Miss  Wallace,  whose  illness  afterward  obliged  her  to 
yield  her  place  to  Mrs.  Barker. 

"The  Fourteenth  Corps  by  Miss  Armstrong. 

"The  Fifteenth  and  Seventeenth  Corps  by  ladies  belonging  to  those  corps — 
Mrs.  Porter  and  Mrs.  Bickerdyke — whose  Mmirable  services  rendered  other 
presence  superfluous. 
27 


210  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAB. 

"The  Twentieth  Corps  was  visited  by  Mrs.  Johnson. 

"The  articles  selected  for  their  distribution  were  the  same  for  all  the  corps; 
while  heavy  articles  of  food  and  clothing  were  issued  by  orders  from  the  field 
agents,  smaller  articles — like  towels,  handkerchiefs,  stationery,  sewing  mate 
rials,  combs,  reading  matter,  etc. — were  left  to  the  ladies. 

"This  division  of  labor  has  been  followed,  except  in  cases  where  no  field 
agent  accompanied  the  lady,  and  there  was  no  sanitary  station  in  the  corps. 
Then  the  lady  agent  performed  double  duty.  She  was  provided  with  a  vehicle, 
and  followed  by  an  army  wagon  loaded  with  supplies  sufficient  for  her  day's 
distribution,  which  had  been  drawn  from  the  Commission  storehouse  upon  a 
requisition  approved  by  the  chief  clerk.  On  arriving  at  the  camp,  her  first  call 
was  at  headquarters,  to  obtain  permission  to  distribute  her  little  articles,  to 
learn  how  sick  the  men  were,  in  quarters  or  in  hospital,  and  to  find  out  the 
numbers  in  each  company.  The  ladies  adopted  two  modes  of  issuing  supplies: 
some  called  for  the  entire  company,  giving  into  each  man's  hand  the  thing  he 
needed;  others  gave  to  the  orderly  sergeant  of  each  company  the  same  propor 
tion  of  each  article,  which  he  distributed  to  the  men.  The  willing  help  and 
heartfelt  pleasure  of  the  officers  in  distributing,  our  gifts  among  their  men  have 
added  much  to  the  respect  and  affection  already  felt  for  them  by  the  soldiers  and 
their  friends. 

"  In  Mrs.  Johnson's  report  of  her  work  in  the  Twentieth  Army  Corps,  she  says : 
'  In  several  instances  officers  have  tendered  the  thanks  of  their  regiments,  when 
they  were  so  choked  by  tears  as  to  render  their  voices  unheard.' 

"I  remember  no  scenes  in  camp  more  picturesque  than  some  of  our  visits 
have  presented.  The  great  open  army  wagon  stands  under  some  shade-tree, 
with  the  officer  who  has  volunteered  to  help,  or  the  regular  Field  Agent,  stand 
ing  in  the  midst  of  boxes,  bales,  and  bundles.  Wheels,  sides,  and  every  pro 
jecting  point  are  crowded  with  eager  soldiers,  to  see  what  'the  Sanitary'  has 
brought  for  them.  By  the  side  of  the  great  wagon  stands  the  light  wagon  of 
the  lady,  with  its  curtains  all  rolled  up,  while  she  arranges  before  and  around 
her  the  supplies  she  is  to  distribute.  Another  eager  crowd  surrounds  her, 
patient,  kind,  and  respectful  as  the  first,  except  that  a  shade  more  of  softness  in 
their  look  and  tone  attest  to  the  ever-living  power  of  woman  over  the  rough 
elements  of  manhood.  In  these  hours  of  personal  communication  with  the 
soldier,  she  finds  the  true  meaning  of  her  work.  This  is  her  golden  opportu 
nity,  when  by  look,  and  tone,  and  movement  she  may  call  up,  as  if  by  magic, 
the  pure  influences  of  home,  which  may  have  been  long  banished  by  the  hard 
necessities  of  war.  Quietly  and  rapidly  the  supplies  are  handed  out  for  Com 
panies  A.  B,  C.,  etc.,  first  from  one  wagon,  then  the  other,  and  as  soon  as  a 
regiment  is  completed  the  men  hurry  back  to  their  tents  to  receive  their  share, 
and  write  letters  on  the  newly  received  paper,  or  apply  the  long  needed  comb, 


MRS.  STEPHEN    BARKER.  211 

or  mend  the  gaping  seams  in  their  now  'historic  garments.'  When  at  last  the 
supplies  are  exhausted,  and  sunset  reminds  us  that  we  are  yet  many  miles  from 
home,  we  gather  up  the  remnants,  bid  good  by  to  the  friendly  faces  which 
already  seem  like  old  acquaintances,  promising  to  come  again  to  visit  new  regi 
ments  to-morrow,  and  hurry  home  to  prepare  for  the  next  day's  Avork. 

"Every  day,  from  the  first  to  the  twentieth  day  of  June,  our  little  band  of 
missionai'ies  has  repeated  a  day's  work  such  as  I  have  now  described.  Every 
regiment,  except  some  which  were  sent  home  before  we  were  able  to  reach 
them,  has  shared  alike  in  what  we  had  to  give.  And  I  think  I  speak  for  all  in 
saying  that  among  the  many  pleasant  memories  connected  with  our  sanitary 
work,  the  last  but  not  the  least  will  be  our  share  in  the  Field  Belief. 
"  Yours  respectfully, 

"MRS.  STEPHEN  BARKER." 


AMY    M.   BRADLEY. 


ERY  few  individuals  in  our  country  are  entirely  igno 
rant  of  the  beneficent  work  performed  by  the  Sanitary 
Commission  during  the  late  war ;  and  these,  perhaps, 
are  the  only  ones  to  whom  the  name  of  Amy  M.  Brad 
ley  is  unfamiliar.  Very  early  in  the  war  she  commenced  her 
work  for  the  soldiers,  and  did  not  discontinue  it  until  some  months 
after  the  last  battle  was  fought,  completing  fully  her  four  years 
of  service,  and  making  her  name  a  synonym  for  active,  judicious, 
earnest  work  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

Amy  M.  Bradley  is  a  native  of  East  Vassalboro',  Kennebec 
County,  Maine,  where  she  was  born  September  12th,  1823,  the 
youngest  child  of  a  large  family.  At  six  years  of  age  she  met 
with  the  saddest  of  earthly  losses,  in  the  death  of  her  mother. 
From  early  life  it  wrould  appear  to  have  been  her  lot  to  make  her 
way  in  life  by  her  own  active  exertions.  Her  father  ceased  to 
keep  house  on  the  marriage  of  his  older  daughters,  and  from  that 
time  until  she  was  fifteen  she  lived  alternately  with  them.  Then 
she  made  her  first  essay  in  teaching  a  small  private  school. 

At  sixteen  she  commenced  life  as  a  teacher  of  public  schools, 
and  continued  the  same  for  more  than  ten  years,  or  until  1850. 

To  illustrate  her  determined  and  persistent  spirit  during  the 
first  four  years  of  her  life  as  a  teacher  she  taught  country  schools 
during  the  summer  and  winter,  and  during  the  spring  and  fall 
attended  the  academy  in  her  native  town,  working  for  her  board 
in  private  families. 

212 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  213 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  through  the  influence  of  Noah 
Woods,  Esq.,  she  obtained  an  appointment  as  principal  of  one  of 
the  Grammar  Schools  in  Gardiner,  Maine,  where  she  remained 
until  the  fall  of  1847.  At  the  end  of  that  time  she  resigned  and 
accepted  an  appointment  as  assistant  in  the  Wiiithrop  Grammar 
School,  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  obtained  for  her  by  her 
cousin,  Stacy  Baxter,  Esq.,  the  principal  of  the  Harvard  Gram 
mar  School  in  the  same  city.  There  she  remained  until  the 
winter  of  1849-50,  when  she  applied  for  a  similar  situation  in 
the  Putnam  Grammar  School,  East  Cambridge  (where  higher 
salaries  w^ere  paid)  and  was  successful.  She  remained,  however, 
only  until  May,  when  a  severe  attack  of  acute  bronchitis  so  pros 
trated  her  strength  as  to  quite  unfit  her  for  her  duties  during  the 
whole  summer.  She  had  previously  suffered  repeatedly  from 
pneumonia.  Her  situation  was  held  for  her  until  the  autumn, 
when  finding  her  health  not  materially  improved,  she  resigned 
and  prepared  to  spend  the  winter  at  the  South  in  the  family  of  a 
brother  residing  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

Miss  Bradley  returned  from  Charleston  the  following  spring. 
Her  winter  in  the  South  had  not  benefited  her  as  she  had  hoped 
and  expected,  and  she  found  herself  unable  to  resume  her  occupa 
tion  as  a  teacher. 

During  the  next  two  years  her  active  spirit  chafed  in  forced 
idleness,  and  life  became  almost  a  burden.  In  the  autumn  of 
\  853,  going  to  Charlestown  and  Cambridge  to  visit  friends,  she 
met  the  physician  Avho  had  attended  her  during  the  severe  illness 
that  terminated  her  teacher-life.  JIe  examined  her  lungs,  and 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  only  a  removal  to  a  warmer  climate 
could  preserve  her  life  through  another  winter,  and  that  the  fol 
lowing  months  of  frost  and  cold  spent  in  the  North  must  undoubt 
edly  in  her  case  develop  pulmonary  consumption. 

To  her  these  were  words  of  doom.  Not  possessed  of  the  means 
for  travelling,  and  unable,  as  she  supposed,  to  obtain  a  livelihood 


214 

in  a  far  off  country,  she  returned  to  Maine,  and  resigned  herself 
with  what  calmness  she  might,  to  the  fate  in  store  for  her. 

But  Providence  had  not  yet  developed  the  great  work  to  which 
she  was  appointed,  and  though  sorely  tried,  and  buffeted,  she 
was  not  to  be  permitted  to  leave  this  mortal  scene  until  the  objects 
of  her  life  were  fulfilled.  Through  resignation  to  death  she  was, 
perhaps,  best  prepared  to  live,  and  even  in  that  season  when  earth 
seemed  receding  from  her  view,  the  wise  purposes  of  the  Ruler  of 
all  in  her  behalf  were  being  worked  out  in  what  seemed  to  be  an 
accidental  manner. 

In  the  family  of  her  cousin,  Mr.  Baxter,  at  Charlestown,  Mas 
sachusetts,  there  had  been  living,  for  two  years,  three  Spanish 
boys  from  Costa  Rica,  Central  America.  Mr.  Baxter  was  an 
instructor  of  youth  and  they  were  his  pupils.  About  this  period 
their  father  arrived  to  fetch  home  a  daughter  who  was  at  school 
in  New  York,  and  to  inquire  what  progress  these  boys  were 
making  in  their  studies.  He  applied  to  Mr.  Baxter  to  recom 
mend  some  lady  who  would  be  willing  to  go  to  Costa  Rica  for 
two  or  three  years  to  instruct  his  daughters  in  the  English  lan 
guage.  Mr.  Baxter  at  once  recommended  Miss  Bradley  as  a 
suitable  person  and  as  willing  and  desirous  to  undertake  the 
journey.  The  situation  was  offered  and  accepted,  and  in  Novem 
ber,  1853,  she  set  sail  for  Costa  Rica. 

After  remaining  a  short  time  with  the  Spanish  family,  she 
accepted  a  proposition  from  the  American  Consul,  and  accompa 
nied  his  family  to  San  Jose,  the  Capital,  among  the  mountains, 
some  seventy  miles  from  Punta  Arenas,  where  she  opened  a 
school  receiving  as  pupils,  English,  Spanish,  German,  and  Ame 
rican  children.  This  was  the  first  English  school  established  in 
Central  America.  For  three  months  she  taught  from  a  black 
board,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  received  from  New  York, 
books,  maps,  and  all  the  needful  apparatus  for  a  permanent 
school. 

This  school  she  taught  with  success  for  three  years.     At  the 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  215 

end  of  that  time  learning  that  the  health  of  her  father,  then 
eighty-three  years  of  age,  was  rapidly  declining,  and  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  die  without  seeing  her,  she  disposed  of  the  property 
and  "  good-will "  of  her  school,  and  as  soon  as  possible  bade  adieu 
to  Costa  Rica.  She  reached  home  on  the  1st  of  June,  1857, 
after  an  absence  of  nearly  four  years.  Her  father,  however,  sur 
vived  for  several  months. 

Her  health  which  had  greatly  improved  during  her  stay  in  the 
salubrious  climate  of  San  Jose,  where  the  temperature  ranges  at 
about  70°  Fahrenheit  the  entire  year,  again  yielded  before  the  frosty 
rigors  of  a  winter  in  the  Pine  Tree  State,  and  for  a  long  time  she 
was  forced  to  lead  a  very  secluded  life.  She  devoted  herself  to 
reading,  to  the  study  of  the  French  and  German  languages,  and 
to  teaching  the  Spanish,  of  which  she  had  become  mistress  during 
her  residence  in  Costa  Rica. 

In  the  spring  of  1861,  she  went  to  East  Cambridge,  where  she 
obtained  the  situation  of  translator  for  the  New  England  Glass 
Company,  translating  commercial  letters  from  English  to  Spanish, 
or  from  Spanish  to  English  as  occasion  required. 

This  she  Avould  undoubtedly  have  found  a  pleasant  and  profit 
able  occupation,  but  the  boom  of  the  first  gun  fired  at  Sumter 
upon  the  old  flag  stirred  to  a  strange  restlessness  the  spirit  of  the 
granddaughter  of  one  who  starved  to  death  on  board  the  British 
Prison  Ship  Jersey,  during  the  revolution.  She  felt  the  earnest 
desire,  but  saw  not  the  way  to  personal  action,  until  the  first 
disastrous  battle  of  Bull  Run  prompted  her  to  immediate  effort. 

She  wrote  to  Dr.  G.  S.  Palmer,  Surgeon  of  the  Fifth  Regiment 
Maine  Volunteers,  an  old  and  valued  friend,  to  offer  her  services 
in  caring  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  His  reply  was  quaint  and 
characteristic.  "  There  is  no  law  at  this  end  of  the  route,  to  pre 
vent  your  coming;  but  the  law  of  humanity  requires  your  imme 
diate  presence." 

As  soon  as  possible  she  started  for  the  seat  of  war,  and  on  the 


216 

1st  of  September,  1861,  commenced  her  services  as  nurse  in  the 
hospital  of  the  Fifth  Maine  Regiment. 

The  regiment  had  been  enlisted  to  a  great  extent  from  the 
vicinity  of  Gardiner,  Maine,  where,  as  we  have  said,  she  had 
taught  for  several  years,  and  among  the  soldiers  both  sick  and 
well  were  a  number  of  her  old  pupils. 

The  morning  after  her  arrival,  Dr.  Palmer  called  at  her  tent, 
and  invited  her  to  accompany  him  through  the  hospital  tents. 
There  were  four  of  these,  filled  with  fever  cases,  the  result  of 
exposure  and  hardship  at  and  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run. 

In  the  second  tent,  were  a  number  of  patients  delirious  from 
the  fever,  whom  the  surgeon  proposed  to  send  to  Alexandria,  to 
the  General  Hospital.  To  one  of  these  she  spoke  kindly,  asking 
if  he  would  like  to  have  anything;  with  a  wild  look,  and  evi 
dently  impressed  with  the  idea  that  he  was  about  to  be  ordered 
on  a  long  journey,  he  replied,  "I  would  like  to  see  my  mother 
and  sisters  before  I  go  home.'7  Miss  Bradley  was  much  affected 
by  his  earnestness,  and  seeing  that  his  recovery  was  improbable, 
begged  Dr.  Palmer  to  let  her  care  for  him  for  his  mother  and 
sisters'  sake,  until  he  went  to  his  last  home.  He  consented,  and 
she  soon  installed  herself  as  nurse  of  most  of  the  fever  cases, 
several  of  them  her  old  pupils.  From  morning  till  night  she 
was  constantly  employed  in  ministering  to  these  poor  fellows,  and 
her  skill  in  nursing  was  often  of  more  service  to  them  than  medi 
cine. 

Colonel  Oliver  O.  Howard,  the  present  Major-General  and 
Commissioner  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  had  been  up  to  the  end  of 
September,  1861,  in  command  of  the  Fifth  Maine  Regiment,  but 
at  that  time  was  promoted  to  the  command  of  a  brigade,  and  Dr. 
Palmer  was  advanced  to  the  post  of  brigade  surgeon,  while  Dr. 
Brickett  succeeded  to  the  surgeoncy  of  the  Fifth  Regiment. 

By  dint  of  energy,  tact  and  management,  Miss  Bradley  had 
brought  the  hospital  into  fine  condition,  having  received  cots  from 
friends  in  Maine,  and  supplies  of  delicacies  and  hospital  clothing 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  217 

from  the  Sanitary  Commission.  General  Slocum,  the  new  brigade 
commander,  early  in  October  made  his  first  round  of  inspection 
of  the  regimental  hospitals  of  the  brigade.  He  found  Dr.  Brick- 
ett's  far  better  arranged  and  supplied  than  any  of  the  others,  and 
inquired  why  it  was  so.  Dr.  Brickett  answered  that  they  had  a 
Maine  woman  who  understood  the  care  of  the  sick,  to  take  charge 
of  the  hospital,  and  that  she  had  drawn  supplies  from  the  Sani 
tary  Commission.  General  Slocum  declared  that  he  could  have 
no  partiality  in  his  brigade,  and  proposed  to  take  two  large  build 
ings,  the  Powell  House  and  the  Octagon  House,  as  hospitals,  and 
instal  Miss  Bradley  as  lady  superintendent  of  the  Brigade  Hos 
pital.  This  was  done  forthwith,  and  with  further  aid  from  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  as  the  Medical  Bureau  had  not  yet  made 
any  arrangement  for  brigade  hospitals,  Miss  Bradley  assisted  by 
the  zealous  detailed  nurses  from  the  brigade  soon  gave  these  two 
houses  a  decided  "  home"  appearance.  The  two  buildings  would 
accommodate  about  seventy-five  patients,  and  were  soon  filled. 
Miss  Bradley  took  a  personal  interest  in  each  case,  as  if  they  were 
her  own  brothers,  and  by  dint  of  skilful  nursing  raised  many  of 
them  from  the  grasp  of  death. 

A  journal  which  she  kept  of  her  most  serious  cases,  illustrates 
very  forcibly  her  deep  interest  and  regard  for  all  "  her  dear  boys" 
as  she  called  them.  She  would  not  give  them  up,  even  when  the 
surgeon  pronounced  their  cases  hopeless,  and  though  she  could 
not  always  save  them  from  death,  she  undoubtedly  prolonged  life 
in  many  instances  by  her  assiduous  nursing. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  1862,  Centre ville,  Virginia,  having 
been  evacuated  by  the  rebels,  the  brigade  to  which  Miss  Bradley 
was  attached  were  ordered  to  occupy  it,  and  five  days  later  the 
Brigade  Hospital  was  broken  up  and  the  patients  distributed,  part 
to  Alexandria,  and  part  to  Fairfax  Seminary  General  Hospital. 
In  the  early  part  of  April  Miss  Bradley  moved  with  the  division 
to  Warrenton  Junction,  and  after  a  week's  stay  in  and  about 
Manassas  the  order  came  to  return  to  Alexandria  and  embark  for 

28 


218 

Yorktown.  Returning  to  Washington,  she  now  offered  her  ser 
vices  to  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  on  the  4th  of  May  was 
summoned  by  a  telegraphic  despatch  from  Mr.  F.  L.  Olmstead, 
the  energetic  and  efficient  Secretary  of  the  Commission,  to  come  at 
once  to  Yorktown.  On  the  6th  of  May  she  reached  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  on  the  7th  was  assigned  to  the  Ocean  Queen  as  lady 
superintendent.  We  shall  give  some  account  of  her  labors  here 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  Hospital  Transport  service.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  in  this  place  that  her  services  which  were  very  arduous, 
were  continued  either  on  the  hospital  ships  or  on  the  shore  until 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  left  the  Peninsula  for  Acquia  Creek  and 
Alexandria,  and  that  in  several  instances  her  kindness  to  wounded 
rebel  officers  and  soldiers,  led  them  to  abandon  the  rebel  service 
and  become  hearty,  loyal  Union  men.  She  accompanied  the  flag 
of  truce  boat  three  times,  when  the  Union  wounded  were  exchanged, 
and  witnessed  some  painful  scenes,  though  the  rebel  authorities 
had  not  then  begun  to  treat  our  prisoners  with  such  cruelty  as 
they  did  later  in  the  wrar.  Early  in  August  she  accompanied  the 
sick  and  wounded  men  on  the  steamers  from  Harrison's  Landing 
to  Philadelphia,  where  they  were  distributed  among  the  hospitals. 
During  all  this  period  of  hospital  transport  service,  she  had  had 
the  assistance  of  that  noble,  faithful,  worker  Miss  Annie  Ethe- 
ridge,  the  "  Gentle  Annie"  of  the  Third  Michigan  regiment,  of 
whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say  in  another  place.  For  a  few 
days,  after  the  transfer  of  the  troops  to  the  vicinity  of  Washing 
ton,  Miss  Bradley  remained  unoccupied,  and  endeavored  by  rest 
and  quiet  to  recover  her  health,  which  had  been  much  impaired 
by  her  severe  labors. 

A  place  was,  however,  in  preparation  for  her,  which,  while  it 
would  bring  her  less  constantly  in  contact  with  the  fearful  wounds 
and  terrible  sufferings  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  would  require 
more  administrative  ability  and  higher  business  qualities  than  she 
had  yet  been  called  to  exercise. 

The  Sanitary  Commission  in  their  desire  to  do  what  they  could 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  219 

for  the  soldier,  had  planned  the  establishment  of  a  Home  at 
Washington,  where  the  private  soldier  conld  go  and  remain  for  a 
few  days  while  awraiting  orders,  without  being  the  prey  of  the 
unprincipled  villains  who  neglected  no  opportunity  of  fleecing 
every  man  connected  with  the  army,  whom  they  could  entice  into 
their  dens ;  where  those  who  were  recovering  from  serious  illness 
or  wounds  could  receive  the  care  and  attention  they  needed ; 
wrhere  their  clothing  often  travel-stained  and  burdened  with  the 
"  Sacred  Soil  of  Virginia,"  could  be  exchanged  for  new,  and  the 
old  washed,  cleansed  and  repaired.  It  was  desirable  that  this 
Home  should  be  invested  with  a  "home"  aspect;  that  books,  news 
papers  and  music  should  be  provided,  as  well  as  wholesome  and 
attractive  food,  and  that  the  presence  of  woman  and  her  kindly 
and  gentle  ministrations,  should  exert  what  influence  they  might 
to  recall  vividly  to  the  soldier  the  home  he  had  left  in  a  distant 
state,  and  to  quicken  its  power  of  influencing  him  to  higher  and 
purer  conduct,  and  more  earnest  valor,  to  preserve  the  institutions 
which  had  made  that  home  what  it  w^as. 

Rev.  F.  N.  Knapp,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Commission, 
on  whom  devolved  the  duty  of  establishing  this  Home,  had  had 
opportunity  of  observing  Miss  Bradley's  executive  ability  in  the 
Hospital  Transport  Service,  as  well  as  in  the  management  of  a 
brigade  hospital,  and  he  selected  her  at  once,  to  take  charge  of 
the  Home,  arrange  all  its  details,  and  act  as  its  Matron.  She 
accepted  the  post,  and  performed  its  duties  admirably,  accommo 
dating  at  times  a  hundred  and  twenty  at  once,  and  by  her  neat 
ness,  good  order  and  cheerful  tact,  dispensing  happiness  xamong 
those  who,  poor  fellows,  had  hitherto  found  little  to  cheer  them. 

But  her  active  and  energetic  nature  was  not  satisfied  with  her 
work  at  the  Soldiers'  Home.  Her  leisure  hours,  (and  with  her 
prompt  business  habits,  she  secured  some  of  these  every  day), 
were  consecrated  to  visiting  the  numerous  hospitals  in  and  around 
Washington,  and  if  she  found  the  surgeons  or  assistant  surgeons 
negligent  and  inattentive,  they  were  promptly  reported  to  the 


220  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

medical  director.  The  condition  of  the  hospitals  in  the  city  was, 
however,  much  better  than  that  of  the  hospitals  and  convalescent 
camps  over  the  river,  in  Virginia.  A  visit  which  she  made  to 
one  of  these,  significantly  named  by  the  soldiers,  "Camp  Misery," 
in  September,  1862,  revealed  to  her,  wretchedness,  suffering  and 
neglect,  such  as  she  had  not  before  witnessed ;  and  she  promptly 
secured  from  the  Sanitary  Commission  such  supplies  as  were 
needed,  and  in  her  frequent  visits  there  for  the  next  three  months, 
distributed  them  with  her  own  hands,  while  she  encouraged  and 
promoted  such  changes  in  the  management  and  arrangements  of 
the  camp  as  greatly  improved  its  condition. 

This  "Camp  Misery57  was  the  original  Camp  of  Distribution, 
to  which  were  sent,  1st,  men  discharged  from  all  the  hospitals 
about  Washington,  as  well  as  the  regimental,  brigade,  division 
and  post  hospitals,  as  convalescent,  or  as  unfit  for  duty,  prepara 
tory  to  their  final  discharge  from  the  army ;  2d,  stragglers  and 
deserters,  recaptured  and  collected  here  preparatory  to  being  for 
warded  to  their  regiments ;  3d,  new  recruits  awaiting  orders  to 
join  regiments  in  the  field.  Numerous  attempts  had  been  made 
to  improve  the  condition  of  this  camp,  but  owing  to  the  small 
number  and  inefficiency  of  the  officers  detailed  to  the  command, 
it  had  constantly  grown  worse.  The  convalescents,  numbering 
nine  or  ten  thousand,  were  lodged,  in  the  depth  of  a  very  severe 
winter,  in  wedge  and  Sibley  tents,  without  floors,  with  no  fires,  or 
means  of  making  any,  amid  deep  mud  or  frozen  clods,  and  were 
very  poorly  supplied  with  clothing,  and  many  of  them  without 
blankets.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  their  health  could  improve.  The  stragglers  and  deserters, 
and  the  new  recruits  were  even  worse  off  than  the  convales 
cents.  The  assistant  surgeon  and  his  acting  assistants,  up  to  the 
last  of  October,  1862,  were  too  inexperienced  to  be  competent  for 
their  duties. 

In  December,  1862,  orders  were  issued  by  the  Government  for 
the  construction  of  a  new  Rendezvous  of  Distribution,  at  a  point 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  221 

near  Fort  Barnard,  Virginia,  on  the  Loudon  and  Hampshire 
Railroad,  the  erection  of  new  and  more  comfortable  barracks,  and 
the  removal  of  the  men  from  the  old  camp  to  it.  The  barracks 
for  the  convalescents  were  fifty  in  number  and  intended  for  the 
accommodation  of  one  hundred  men  each,  and  they  were  com 
pleted  in  February,  1863,  and  the  new  regulations  and  the  ap 
pointment  of  new  and  efficient  officers,  greatly  improved  the 
condition  of  the  Rendezvous. 

In  December,  1862,  while  the  men  were  yet  in  Camp  Misery, 
Miss  Bradley  was  sent  there  as  the  Special  Relief  Agent  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  took  up  her  quarters  there.  As  we 
have  said  the  condition  of  the  men  was  deplorable.  She  ar 
rived  on  the  1 7th  of  December,  and  after  setting  up  her  tents, 
and  arranging  her  little  hospital,  cook-room,  store-room,  wash 
room,  bath-room,  and  office,  so  as  to  be  able  to  serve  the  men 
most  effectually,  she  passed  round  with  the  officers,  as  the  men 
were  drawn  up  in  line  for  inspection,  and  supplied  seventy-five 
men  with  woollen  shirts,  giving  only  to  the  very  needy.  In 
her  hospital  tents  she  soon  had  forty  patients,  all  of  them  men 
who  had  been  discharged  from  the  hospitals  as  well ;  these  were 
washed,  supplied  with  clean  clothing,  warmed,  fed  and  nursed. 
Others  had  discharge  papers  awaiting  them,  but  were  too  feeble 
to  stand  in  the  cold  and  wet  till  their  turn  came.  She  obtained 
them  for  them,  and  sent  the  poor  invalids  to  the  Soldiers'  Home 
in  Washington,  en  route  for  their  own  homes.  From  May  1st  to 

o  /  «- 

December  31st,  1863,  she  conveyed  more  than  two  thousand  dis 
charged  soldiers  from  the  Rendezvous  of  Distribution  to  the 
Commission's  Lodges  at  Washington ;  most  of  them  men  suffer 
ing  from  incurable  disease,  and  who  but  for  her  kind  ministrations 
must  most  of  them  have  perished  in  the  attempt  to  reach  their 
homes.  In  four  months  after  she  commenced  her  work  she  had 
had  in  her  little  hospital  one  hundred  and  thirty  patients,  of  whom 
fifteen  died.  For  these  patients  as  well  as  for  other  invalids  who 
were  unab  e  to  write  she  wrote  letters  to  their  friends,  and  to  the 


222  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

friends  of  the  dead  she  sent  full  accounts  of  the  last  hours  of 
their  lost  ones.  The  discharged  men,  and  many  of  those  who 
were  on  record  unjustly  as  deserters,  through  some  informality  in 
their  papers,,  often  found  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  their  pay, 
and  sometimes  could  not  ascertain  satisfactorily  how  much  was 
due  them,  in  consequence  of  errors  on  the  part  of  the  regimental 
or  company  officers.  Miss  Bradley  was  indefatigable  in  her 
efforts  to  secure  the  correction  of  these  papers,  and  the  prompt 
payment  of  the  amounts  due  to  these  poor  men,  many  of  whom, 
but  for  her  exertion,  would  have  suffered  on  their  arrival  at  their 
distant  homes.  Between  May  1st  and  December  31st,  1863,  she 
procured  the  reinstatement  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers  who 
had  been  dropped  from  their  muster  rolls  unjustly  as  deserters, 
and  secured  their  arrears  of  pay  to  them,  amounting  in  all  to 
nearly  eight  thousand  dollars. 

On  the  8th  of  February,  1864,  the  convalescents  were,  by 
general  orders  from  the  War  Department,  removed  to  the  general 
hospitals  in  and  about  Washington,  and  the  name  changed  from 
Camp  Distribution  to  Rendezvous  of  Distribution,  and  only  strag 
glers  and  deserters,  and  the  recruits  awaiting  orders,  or  other  men 
fit  for  duty  were  to  be  allowed  there.  For  nearly  two  months 
Miss  Bradley  was  confined  to  her  quarters  by  severe  illness.  On 
her  recovery  she  pushed  forward  an  enterprise  on  which  she  had 
set  her  heart,  of  establishing  a  weekly  paper  at  the  Rendezvous, 
to  be  called  "  The  Soldiers7  Journal/7  which  should  be  a  medium 
of  contributions  from  all  the  more  intelligent  soldiers  in  the  camp, 
and  the  profits  from  which  (if  any  accrued),  should  be  devoted  to 
the  relief  of  the  children  of  deceased  soldiers.  On  the  17th  of 
February  the  first  number  of  aThe  Soldiers7  Journal77  appeared, 
a  quarto  sheet  of  eight  pages ;  it  was  conducted  with  considerable 
ability  and  was  continued  till  the  breaking  up  of  the  Rendezvous  and 
hospital,  August  22, 1865,  just  a  year  and  a  half.  The  profits  of  the 
paper  were  twenty-one  hundred  and  fifty-five  dollars  and  seventy- 
five  cents,  beside  the  value  of  the  printing-press  and  materials, 


AMY    M.  BRADLEY.  223 

which  amount  was  held  for  the  benefit  of  orphans  of  soldiers  who 
had  been  connected  with  the  camp,  and  was  increased  by  contri 
butions  from  other  sources.  Miss  Bradley,  though  the  proprietor, 
was  not  for  any  considerable  period  the  avowed  editor  of  the 
paper,  Mr.  R.  A.  Cassidy,  and  subsequently  Mr.  Thomas  V. 
Cooper,  acting  in  that  capacity,  but  she  was  a  large  contributor  to 
its  columns,  and  her  poetical  contributions  which  appeared  in 
almost  every  number,  indicated  deep  emotional  sensibilities,  and 
considerable  poetic  talent.  Aside  from  its  interesting  reading 
matter,  the  Journal  gave  instructions  to  the  soldiers  in  relation  to 
the  procurement  of  the  pay  and  clothing  to  which  they  were  enti 
tled;  the  requisites  demanded  by  the  government  for  the  granting 
of  furloughs ;  and  the  method  of  procuring  prompt  settlement  of 
their  accounts  with  the  government  without  the  interference  of 
claim  agents.  During  the  greater  part  of  1864,  and  in  1865,  until 
the  hospital  was  closed,  Miss  Bradley,  in  addition  to  her  other 
duties,  was  Superintendent  of  Special  Diet  to  the  Augur  General 
Hospital,  and  received  and  forwarded  from  the  soldiers  to  their 
friends,  about  forty-nine  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars. 

The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Rendezvous  of  Distribution 
were  not  forgetful  of  the  unwearied  labors  of  Miss  Bradley  for 
their  benefit.  On  the  22d  of  February,  1864,  she  was  presented 
with  an  elegant  gold  watch  and  chain,  the  gift  of  the  officers  and 
private  soldiers  of  Camp  Convalescent,  then  just  broken  up.  The 
gift  was  accompanied  with  a  very  appropriate  address  from  the 
chaplain  of  the  camp,  Rev.  William  J.  Potter.  She  succeeded  in 
winning  the  regard  and  esteem  of  all  with  whom  she  was  asso 
ciated.  When,  in  August,  1865,  she  retired  from  the  service  of  The 
Sanitary  Commission,  its  secretary,  John  S.  Blatchford,  Esq.,  ad 
dressed  her  in  a  letter  expressive  of  the  high  sense  the  Commission 
entertained  of  her  labors,  and  the  great  good  she  had  accomplished, 
and  the  Treasurer  of  the  Commission  forwarded  her  a  check  as 
for  salary  for  so  much  of  the  year  1865  as  was  passed,  to  enable  her 
to  take  the  rest  and  relaxation  from  continuous  labor  which  she 


224 

so  greatly  needed.  In  person  Miss  Bradley  is  small,  erect,  and 
possesses  an  interesting  and  attractive  face,  thoughtful,  and  giving 
evidence  in  the  lines  of  the  mouth  and  chin,  of  executive  ability, 
energy  and  perseverance.  Her  manners  are  easy,  graceful  and 
winning,  and  she  evinces  in  a  marked  degree  the  possession  of 
that  not  easily  described  talent,  of  which  our  record  furnishes 
numerous  examples,  which  the  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table 
calls  "  fiiculty." 


MRS.   ARABELLA    G.   BARLOW. 


ROMANTIC  interest  encircles  the  career  of  this  bril 
liant  and  estimable  lady,  which  is  saddened  by  her 
early  doom,  and  the  grief  of  her  young  husband 
bereaved  before  Peace  had  brought  him  that  quiet 
domestic  felicity  for  which  he  doubtless  longed. 

Arabella  Griffith  was  born  in  Somerville,  New  Jersey,  but  was 
brought  up  and  educated  under  the  care  of  Miss  Eliza  Wallace 
of  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  who  was  a  relative  upon  her  father's 
side.  As  she  grew  up  she  developed  remarkable  powers.  Those 
who  knew  her  well,  both  as  relatives  and  in  the  social  circle, 
speak  of  her  warm  heart,  her  untiring  energy,  her  brilliant  con 
versational  powers,  and  the  beauty  and  delicacy  of  thought  which 
marked  her  contributions  to  the  press.  By  all  who  knew  her  she 
was  regarded  as  a  remarkable  woman. 

That  she  was  an  ardent  patriot,  in  more  than  words,  who  can 
doubt?  She  sealed  her  devotion  to  her  country's  cause  by  the 
sublimest  sacrifices  of  which  woman  is  capable — sacrifices  in  which 
she  never  faltered  even  in  the  presence  of  death  itself. 

Arabella  Griffith  was  a  young  and  lovely  woman,  the  brilliant 
centre  of  a  large  and  admiring  circle.  Francis  C.  Barlow  was  a 
rising  young  lawyer  with  a  noble  future  opening  before  him. 
These  two  were  about  to  unite  their  destinies  in  the  marriage  rela 
tion. 

Into  the  midst  of  their  joyful  anticipations,  came  the  echoes  of 
the  first  shot  fired  by  rebellion.  The  country  sprang  to  arms 

29  225 


226  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIT,  WAR, 

These  ardent  souls  were  not  behind  their  fellow-countrymen  and 
countrywomen  in  their  willingness  to  act  and  to  suffer  for  the  land 
and  the  Government  they  loved. 

On  the  19th  of  April,  1861,  Mr. 'Barlow  enlisted  as  a  private 
in  the  Twelfth  Regiment  New  York  Militia.  On  the  20th  of 
April  they  were  married,  and  on  the  21st  Mr.  Barlow  left  with 
his  regiment  for  Washington. 

In  the  course  of  a  week  Mrs.  Barlow  followed  her  husband, 
and  remained  with  him  at  Washington,  and  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
where  the  Twelfth  was  presently  ordered  to  join  General  Patter 
son's  command,  until  its  return  home,  August  1st,  1861. 

In  November,  1861,  Mr.  Barlow  re-entered  the  service,  as 
Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Sixty-first  New  York  Volunteers,  and 
Mrs.  Barlow  spent  the  winter  with  him  in  camp  near  Alexandria, 
Virginia.  She  shrank  from  no  hardship  which  it  was  his  lot  to 
encounter,  and  was  with  him,  to  help,  to  sustain,  and  to  cheer 
him,  whenever  it  was  practicable  for  her  to  be  so,  and  neglected 
QO  opportunity  of  doing  good  to  others  which  presented  itself. 

Colonel  Barlow  made  the  Peninsular  Campaign  in  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1862  under  McClellan.  After  the  disastrous 
retreat  from  before  Richmond,  Mrs.  Barlow  joined  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  and  reached  Harrison's  Landing  on  the  2d  of  July, 
1862. 

Exhausted,  wounded,  sick  and  dying  men  were  arriving  there 
by  scores  of  thousands — the  remnants  of  a  great  army,  broken  by 
a  series  of  terrible  battles,  disheartened  and  well-nigh  demoralized. 
Many  of  the  best  and  noblest  of  our  American  women  were  there 
in  attendance,  ready  to  do  their  utmost  amidst  all  the  hideous 
sights,  and  fearful  sufferings  of  the  hospitals,  for  these  sick,  and 
maimed,  and  wounded  men.  Mrs.  Barlow  remained,  doing  an 
untold  amount  of  work,  and  good  proportionate,  until  the  army 
left  in  the  latter  part  of  August. 

Soon  after,  with  short  space  for  rest,  she  rejoined  her  husband 
in  the  field  during  the  campaign  in  Maryland,  but  was  obliged  to 


MRS.  ARABELLA    GRIFFITH    BARLOW.  227 

go  north  upon  business,,  and  was  detained  and  unable  to  return 
until  the  day  following  the  battle  of  Antietam. 

She  found  her  husband  badly  wounded,  and  of  course  her  first 

efforts  were  for  him.     She  nursed  him  tenderly  and  unremittingly, 

•>  &  j ) 

giving  such  assistance  as  was  possible  in  her  rare  leisure  to  the 
other  wounded.  We  cannot  doubt  that  even  then  she  was  very 
useful,  and  with  her  accustomed  energy  and  activity,  made  these 
spare  moments  of  great  avail. 

General  Barlow  was  unfit  for  further  service  until  the  following 
spring.  His  wife  remained  in  attendance  upon  him  through  the 
winter  of  1862-3,  and  in  the  spring  accompanied  him  to  the 
field,  and  made  the  campaign  with  him  from  Falmouth  to  Gettys 
burg. 

At  this  battle  her  husband  was  again  severely  wounded.  He 
was  within  the  enemy's  lines,  and  it  was  only  by  great  effort  and 
exposure  that  she  was  able  to  have  him  removed  within  our  own. 
She  remained  here,  taking  care  of  him,  and  of  the  other  wounded, 
during  the  dreadful  days  that  followed,  during  which  the  suffer 
ings  of  the  wounded  from  the  intense  heat,  and  the  scarcity  of 
medical  and  other  supplies  were  almost  incredible,  and  altogether 
indescribable.  It  was  after  this  battle  that  the  efficient  aid,  and 
the  generous  supplies  afforded  by  the  Sanitary  Commission  and 
its  agents,  were  so  conspicuous,  and  the  results  of  this  beneficent 
organization  in  the  saving  of  life  and  suffering  perhaps  more  dis 
tinctly  seen  than  on  any  other  occasion.  Mrs.  Barlow,  aside  from 
her  own  special  and  absorbing  interest  in  her  husband's  case, 
found  time  to  demonstrate  that  she  had  imbibed  its  true  spirit. 

Again,  through  a  long  slow  period  of  convalescence  she  watched 
beside  her  husband,  but  the  spring  of  1864  found  her  in  the  field 
prepared  for  the  exigencies  of  Grant's  successful  campaign  of  that 
year. 

At  times  she  was  with  General  Barlow  in  the  trenches  before 
Petersburg,  but  on  the  eve  of  the  fearful1  battles  of  the  Wilder 
ness,  and  the  others  which  followed  in  such  awfully  bewildering 


228 

succession,  she  was  to  be  found  at  the  place  these  foreshadowed 
events  told  that  she  was  most  needed.  At  Belle  Plain,  at  Fred- 
ericksburg,  and  at  White  House,  she  was  to  be  found  as  ever 
actively  working  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  A  friend  and  fel 
low-laborer  describes  her  work  as  peculiar,  and  fitting  admirably 
into  the  more  exclusive  hospital  work  of  the  majority  of  the 
women  who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  soldiers. 
Her  great  activity  and  inexhaustible  energy  showed  themselves 
in  a  sort  of  roving  work,  in  seizing  upon  and  gathering  up  such 
things  as  her  quick  eye  saw  were  needed.  "We  called  her  'the 
Raider,'  "  says  this  friend,  who  was  also  a  warm  admirer.  "At 
Fredericksburg  she  had  in  some  way  gained  possession  of  a 
wretched-looking  pony,  and  a  small  cart  or  farmer's  wagon,  with 
which  she  was  continually  on  the  move,  driving  about  town  or 
country  in  search  of  such  provisions  or  other  articles  as  were 
needed  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  The  surgeon  in  charge  had 
on  one  occasion  assigned  her  the  task  of  preparing  a  building, 
which  had  been  taken  for  a  hospital,  for  a  large  number  of 
wounded  who  were  expected  almost  immediately.  I  went  with 
my  daughter  to  the  building.  It  was  empty,  containing  not  the 
slightest  furniture  or  preparation  for  the  suiferers,  save  a  large 
number  of  bed-sacks,  without  straw  or  other  material  to  fill 
them. 

"On  requisition  a  quantity  of  straw  was  obtained,  but  not 
nearly  enough  for  the  expected  need,  and  we  were  standing  in  a 
kind  of  mute  despair,  considering  if  it  were  indeed  possible  to 
secure  any  comfort  for  the  poor  fellows  expected,  when  Mrs. 
Barlow  came  in.  'I'll  find  some  more  straw/  was  her  cheerful 
reply,  and  in  another  moment  she  was  urging  her  tired  beast 
toward  another  part  of  the  town  where  she  remembered  having 
seen  a  bale  of  the  desired  article  earlier  in  the  day.  Half  an 
hour  afterward  the  straw  had  been  confiscated,  loaded  upon  the 
little  wagon  by  willing  hands,  and  brought  to  the  hospital.  She 
then  helped  to  fill  and  arrange  the  sacks,  and  afterwards  drove 


MRS.  ARABELLA    GRIFFITH    BARLOW.  229 

about  the  town  in  search  of  articles,  which,  by  the  time  the  am 
bulances  brought  in  their  freight  of  misery  and  pain,  had  served 
to  furnish  the  place  with  some  means  of  alleviation." 

Through  all  these  awful  days    she  labored    on    unceasingly. 

t/  O   J 

Her  health  became  somewhat  impaired,  but  she  paid  no  heed  to 
the  warning.  Her  thoughts  were  not  for  herself,  her  cares  not 
for  her  own  sufferings.  Earlier  attention  to  her  own  condition 
might  perhaps,  have  arrested  the  threatening  symptoms,  but  she 
was  destined  to  wear  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  and  lay  down  the 
beautiful  life  upon  which  so  many  hopes  clung,  her  last  sacrifice 
upon  the  altar  of  her  country.  The  extracts  which  we  append 
describe  better  the  closing  scenes  of  her  life  than  we  can.  The 
first  is  taken  from  the  Sanitary  Commission  Bulletin,  of  August 
15,  1864,  and  we  copy  also  the  beautiful  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  the  departed  contributed  by  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  of  Columbia 
College,  to  the  New  York  Evening  Post.  The  briefer  extract  is 
from  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  New  York 
Herald  of  July  31st,  1864. 

"Died  at  Washington,  July  27,  1864,  Mrs.  Arabella  Griffith 
Barlow,  wife  of  Brigadier-General  Francis  C.  Barlow,  of  fever 
contracted  while  in  attendance  upon  the  hospitals  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  at  the  front. 

"  With  the  commencement  of  the  present  campaign  she  became 
attached  to  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  entered  upon  her 
sphere  of  active  work  during  the  pressing  necessity  for  willing 
hands  and  earnest  hearts,  at  Fredericksburg.  The  zeal,  the 
activity,  the  ardent  loyalty  and  the  scornful  indignation  for  every 
thing  disloyal  she  then  displayed,  can  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
whose  fortune  it  was  to  be  with  her  on  that  occasion.  Ever 
watchful  of  the  necessities  of  that  trying  time,  her  mind,  fruitful 
in  resources,  was  always  busy  in  devising  means  to  alleviate  the 
discomforts  of  the  wounded,  attendant  upon  so  vast  a  campaign 
within  the  enemy's  country,  and  her  hand  was  always  ready  to 
carry  out  the  devices  of  her  mind. 


230  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

"Many  a  fractured  limb  rested  upon  a  mattress  improvised 
from  materials  sought  out  and  brought  together  from  no  one 
knew  where  but  the  earnest  sympathizing  woman  who  is  now 
no  more. 

"At  Fredericksburg  she  labored  with  all  her  heart  and  mind. 
The  sound  of  battle  in  which  her  husband  was  engaged,  floating 
back  from  Chancellorsville,  stimulated  her  to  constant  exertions. 
She  faltered  not  an  instant.  Remaining  till  all  the  wounded 
had  been  removed  from  Fredericksburg,  she  left  with  the  last 
hospital  transport  for  Port  Royal,  where  she  again  aided  in  the 
care  of  the  wounded,  as  they  were  brought  in  at  that  point. 
From  thence  she  went  to  White  House,  on  one  of  the  steamers 
then  in  the  service  of  the  Commission,  and  immediately  going  to 
the  front,  labored  there  in  the  hospitals,  after  the  battle  of  Cold 
Harbor.  From  White  House  she  passed  to  City  Point,  and 
arrived  before  the  battles  in  front  of  Petersburg.  Going  directly 
to  the  front,  she  labored  there  with  the  same  energy  and  devotion 
she  had  shown  at  Fredericksburg  and  White  House. 

"  Of  strong  constitution,  she  felt  capable  of  enduring  all  things 
for  the  cause  she  loved;  but  long-continued  toil,  anxiety  and 
privation  prepared  her  system  for  the  approach  of  fever,  which 
eventually  seized  upon  her. 

"  Yielding  to  the  solicitation  of  friends  she  immediately  returned 
to  Washington,  where,  after  a  serious  illness  of  several  weeks,  she, 
when  apparently  convalescing,  relapsed,  and  fell  another  martyr 
to  a  love  of  country." 

Dr.  Lieber  says:  "Mrs.  Barlow,  (Arabella  Griffith  before  she 
married),  was  a  highly  cultivated  lady,  full  of  life,  spirit,  activity 
and  charity. 

"General  Barlow  entered  as  private  one  of  our  New  York 
volunteer  regiments  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  The  evening 
before  he  left  New  York  for  Washington  with  his  regiment,  they 
were  married  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Lafayette  Place. 
Barlow  rose,  and  as  Lieutenant-Colonel,  made  the  Peninsular 


MRS.  ARABELLA    GRIFFITH    BARLOW.  231 

campaign  under  General  McClellan.  He  was  twice  severely 
wounded,  the  last  time  at  Antietam.  Since  then  we  have  always 
read  his  name  most  honorably  mentioned,  whenever  Major- 
General  Hancock's  Corps  was  spoken  of.  Mrs.  Barlow  in  the 
meantime  entered  the  Sanitary  service.  In  the  Peninsular  cam 
paign  she  was  one  of  those  ladies  who  worked  hard  and  nobly, 
close  to  the  battle-field,  as  close  indeed  as  they  were  permitted  to 
do.  When  her  husband  was  wounded  she  attended,  of  course, 
upon  him.  In  the  present  campaign  of  General  Grant  she  has 
been  at  Belle  Plain,  White  House,  and  everywhere  where  our 
good  Sanitary  Commission  has  comforted  the  dying  and  rescued 
the  many  wounded  from  the  grave,  which  they  would  otherwise 
have  found.  The  last  time  I  heard  of  her  she  was  at  White 
House,  and  now  I  am  informed  that  she  died  of  typhus  fever  in 
Washington.  No  doubt  she  contracted  the  malignant  disease  in 

&  o 

performing  her  hallowed  and  self-imposed  duty  in  the  field. 

"  Her  friends  will  mourn  at  the  removal  from  this  life  of  so 
noble  a  being.  All  of  us  are  the  poorer  for  her  loss;  but  our 
history  has  been  enriched  by  her  death.  Let  it  always  be  remem 
bered  as  one  of  those  details  which,  like  single  pearls,  make  up 
the  precious  string  of  history,  and  which  a  patriot  rejoices  to  con 
template  and  to  transmit  like  inherited  jewels  to  the  rising  gene 
rations.  Let  us  remember  as  American  men  and  women,  that 
here  we  behold  a  young  advocate,  highly  honored  for  his  talents 
by  all  who  knew  him.  He  joins  the  citizen  army  of  his  country 
as  a  private,  rises  to  command,  is  wounded  again  and  again,  and 
found  again  and  again  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  or  division,  in 
the  fight  where  decision  centres.  And  here  is  his  bride — accom 
plished,  of  the  fairest  features,  beloved  and  sought  for  in  society 
— who  divests  herself  of  the  garments  of  fashion,  and  becomes 
the  assiduous  nurse  in  the  hospital  and  on  the  field,  shrinking 
from  no  sickening  sight,  and  fearing  no  typhus — that  dreadful 
enemy,  which  in  war  follows  the  wings  of  the  angel  of  death,  like 
the  fever-bearing  currents  of  air — until  she,  too,  is  laid  on  the 


couch  of  the  camp,  and  bidden  to  rest  from  her  weary  work,  and 
to  let  herself  be  led  "jy  the  angel  of  death  to  the  angel  of  life. 
God  bless  her  memory  to  our  women,  our  men,  our  country. 

"  There  are  many  glories  of  a  righteous  war.  It  is  glorious  to 
light  or  fall,  to  bleed  or  to  conquer,  for  so  great  and  good  a  cause 
as  ours;  it  is  glorious  to  go  to  the  field  in  order  to  help  and  to 
heal,  to  fan  the  fevered  soldier  and  to  comfort  the  bleeding  brother, 
and  thus  helping,  may  be  to  die  with  him  the  death  for  our  coun 
try.  Both  these  glories  have  been  vouchsafed  to  the  bridal  pair." 

The  Herald  correspondent,  writing  from  Petersburg,  July  31, 
says : 

"  General  Miles  is  temporarily  in  command  of  the  First  Division 
during  the  absence  of  General  Barlow,  who  has  gone  home  for  a 
few  days  for  the  purpose  of  burying  his  wife.  The  serious  loss 
which  the  gallant  young  general  and  an  extensive  circle  of  friends 
in  social  life  have  sustained  by  the  death  of  Mrs.  Barlow,  is  largely 
shared  by  the  soldiers  of  this  army.  She  smoothed  the  dying 
pillow  of  many  patriotic  soldiers  before  she  received  the  summons 
to  follow  them  herself;  and  many  a  surviving  hero  who  has 
languished  in  army  hospitals  will  tenderly  cherish  the  memory  of 
her  saintly  ministrations  when  they  were  writhing  with  the  pain 
of  wounds  received  in  battle  or  lost  in  the  delirium  of  consuming 
fevers." 

To  these  we  add  also  the  cordial  testimony  of  Dr.  "W.  H.  Reed, 
one  of  her  associates,  at  City  Point,  in  his  recently  published 
"  Hospital  Life  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac :" 

"  Of  our  own  more  immediate  party,  Mrs.  General  Barlow  was 
the  only  one  who  died.  Her  exhausting  work  at  Fredericksburg, 
where  the  largest  powers  of  administration  were  displayed,  left 
but  a  small  measure  of  vitality  with  which  to  encounter  the  severe 
exposures  of  the  poisoned  swamps  of  the  Pamunky,  and  the 
malarious  districts  of  City  Point.  Here,  in  the  open  field,  she 
toiled  with  Mr.  Marshall  and  Miss  Gilson,  under  the  scorching 
sun,  with  no  shelter  from  the  pouring  rains,  with  no  thought  but 


MRS.  ARABELLA    GRIFFITH    BARLOW. 

for  those  who  were  suffering  and  dying  all  around  her.  On  the 
battle-field  of  Petersburg,  hardly  out  of  range  of  the  enemy,  and 
at  night  witnessing  the  blazing  lines  of  fire  from  right  to  left, 
among  the  wounded,  with  her  sympathies  and  powers  of  both 
mind  and  body  strained  to  the  last  degree,  neither  conscious  that 
she  was  working  beyond  her  strength,  nor  realizing  the  extreme 
exhaustion  of  her  system,  she  fainted  at  her  work,  and  found, 
only  when  it  wras  too  late,  that  the  raging  fever  was  wasting  her 
life  awTay.  It  was  strength  of  wrill  which  sustained  her  in  this 
intense  activity,  when  her  poor,  tired  body  was  trying  to  assert  its 
own  right  to  repose.  Yet  to  the  last,  her  sparkling  wit,  her 
brilliant  intellect,  her  unfailing  good  humor,  lighted  up  our 
moments  of  rest  and  recreation.  So  many  memories  of  her  beau 
tiful  constancy  and  self-sacrifice,  of  her  bright  and  genial  com 
panionship,  of  her  rich  and  glowing  sympathies,  of  her  warm  and 
loving  nature,  c  >me  back  to  me,  that  I  feel  how  inadequate  would 
be  any  tribute  I  could  pay  to  her  worth." 

30 


MRS.    NELLIE   MARIA   TAILOR. 


HE  Southwest  bore  rank  weeds  of  secession  and  treason, 
spreading  poison  and  devastation  over  that  portion  of 
our  fair  national  heritage.  But  from  the  same  soil, 
amidst  the  ruin  and  desolation  which  followed  the 
breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  there  sprang  up  growths  of  loyalty 
and  patriotism,  which  by  flowering  and  fruitage,  redeemed  the 
land  from  the  curse  that  had  fallen  upon  it. 

Among  the  women  of  the  Southwest  have  occurred  instances 
of  the  most  devoted  loyalty,  the  most  self-sacrificing  patriotism. 
They  have  suffered  deeply  and  worked  nobly,  and  their  efforts 
alone  have  been  sufficient  to  show  that  no  part  of  our  fair  land 
was  irrecoverably  doomed  to  fall  beneath  the  ban  of  a  govern 
ment  opposed  to  freedom,  truth,  and  progress. 

Prominent  among  these  noble  women,  is  Mrs.  Nellie  Maria 
Taylor,  of  New  Orleans,  whose  sufferings  claim  our  warmest 
sympathy,  and  whose  work  our  highest  admiration  and  gratitude. 

Mrs.  Taylor,  whose  maiden  name  was  Dewey,  was  born  in 
Watertown,  Jefferson  county,  New  York,  in  the  year  1821,  of 
New  England  parentage.  At  an  early  age  she  removed  with  her 
parents  to  the  West,  where,  as  she  says  of  herself,  she  "  grew  up 
among  the  Indians,"  and  perhaps,  by  her  free  life,  gained  some 
thing  of  the  firmness  of  health  and  strength  of  character  and  pur 
pose,  which  have  brought  her  triumphantly  through  the  trials 
and  labors  of  the  past  four  years. 

She  married  early,  and  about  the  year  1847  removed  with  her 

234 


N  E  L  L  I  K    M  A  R  M     I    \\  L  O  R  . 


j    <>ur  iivir  nM.h. 


no  part 


une  so 


l  labors  of  ti>.-  }••?• 
She  married  OfirSy,  ai--;    -'»»»»tn  tlw  y^rtr  1817 

231 


MRS.  NELLIE  MARIA  TAYL< 


)H 


MRS.  NELLIE    MARIA    TAYLOR.  237 

late  in  February  of  that  year  that  Mrs.  Taylor  was  visiting  at 
the  judge's  house,  and  during  her  visit  the  judge's  son,  a  young 
man  of  twenty,  taunted  her  with  various  epithets,  such  as  a 
"Lincoln  Emissary/'  "a  traitor  to  her  country,"  "a  friend  of  Lin 
coln's  hirelings,"  etc.  She  listened  quietly,  and  then  as  quietly 
remarked  that  "he  evidently  belonged  to  that  very  numerous 
class  of  young  men  in  the  South  who  evinced  their  courage  by 
applying  abusive  epithets  to  women  and  defenseless  persons,  but 
showed  a  due  regard  to  their  own  safety,  by  running  away — as  at 
Donelson — whenever  they  were  likely  to  come  into  contact  with 
"  Lincoln's  hirelings." 

The  same  evening,  at  a  late  hour,  while  Mrs.  Taylor  was 
standing  by  the  bed-side  of  her  invalid  husband,  preparing  some 
medicine  for  him,  she  heard  the  report  of  a  rifle  and  felt  the  wind 
of  a  minie  bullet  as  it  passed  close  to  her  head  and  lodged  in  the 
wall.  In  the  morning  she  dug  the  ball  out  of  the  wall  and  took 
it  over  to  the  judge's  house  which  was  opposite  to  her  own. 
When  the  young  man  came  in  Mrs.  Taylor  handed  it  to  him,  and 
asked  if  he  knew  what  it  was.  He  turned  pale,  but  soon  re 
covered  his  composure  sufficiently  to  reply  that  "it  looked  like  a 
rifle-ball."  "Oh,  no,"  said  Mrs.  Taylor,  "you  mistake !  It  is  a 
piece  of  Southern  chivalry  fired  at  a  defenseless  woman,  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  by  the  son  of  a  judge,  whose  courage  should 
entitle  him  to  a  commission  in  the  Confederate  army." 

Still,  brave  as  she  was,  she  could  not  avoid  some  feeling,  if  not 
of  trepidation,  at  least  of  anxiety,  at  being  thus  exposed  to  mid 
night  assassination,  while  her  life  was  so  necessary  to  her  helpless 
family. 

These  are  but  a  few  instances  out  of  many,  of  the  trials  she  had 
to  endure.  Her  son  hearing  of  them,  through  the  indiscretion 
of  a  school-friend,  hastened  home,  determined  to  enlist  in  the 
Confederate  army  to  save  his  parents  from  further  molestation. 
He  enlisted  for  ninety  days,  hoping  thus  to  shield  his  family  from 
persecution,  but  the  Conscription  Act,  which  shortly  after  went 


238  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

into  effect,  kept  him  in  the  position  for  which  his  opinions  so  un 
fitted  him.  From  the  spring  of  1862,  he  remained  in  the  Con 
federate  army,  gaining  rapid  promotion,  and  distinguished  for  his 
bravery,  until  the  close  of  the  war,  when  he  returned  home  un 
changed  in  sentiment,  and  unharmed  by  shot  or  shell — in  this 
last  particular  more  fortunate  than  thousands  of  others  forced  by 
conscription  into  the  ranks,  and  sacrificing  their  lives  for  a  cause 
with  which  they  had  no  sympathy. 

From  the  time  of  her  son's  enlistment  Mrs.  Taylor  was  nearly 
free  from  molestation,  and  devoted  herself  to  the  care  of  her 
family,  until  the  occupation  of  New  Orleans  by  the  Union  forces. 
She  was  then  reinstated  in  her  position  as  teacher,  and  after  the 
establishment  of  Union  hospitals,  she  spent  all  her  leisure 
moments  in  ministering  to  the  wants  of  the  sick  and  wounded. 

In  1863,  we  hear  of  her  as  employing  all  her  summer  vacation, 
as  well  as  her  entire  leisure-time  when  in  school,  in  visiting  the 
hospitals,  attending  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  and  preparing 
for  them  such  delicacies  and  changes  of  food  and  other  comforts 
as  she  could  procure  from  her  own  purse,  and  by  the  aid  of  others. 
From  that  time  forward  until  the  close  of  the  war,  or  until  the 
hospitals  were  closed  by  order  of  the  Government,  she  continued 
this  work,  expending  her  whole  salary  upon  these  suffering  men, 
and  never  omitting  anything  by  which  she  might  minister  to  their 
comfort. 

Thousands  of  soldiers  can  bear  testimony  to  her  unwearied 
labors ;  it  is  not  wanting,  and  will  be  her  best  reward.  One  of 
these  writers  says,  "I  do  assure  you  it  affords  me  the  greatest 
pleasure  to  be  able  to  add  my  testimony  for  that  good,  that  noble, 
that  blessed  woman,  Mrs.  Taylor.  I  Avas  wounded  at  Port  Hud 
son  in  May,  1863,  and  lay  in  the  Barracks  General  Hospital  at 
New  Orleans  for  over  three  months,  when  1  had  an  excellent 
opportunity  to  see  and  know  her  work.  *  *  *  She  worked 
every  day  in  the  hospital — all  her  school  salary  she  spent  for  the 
soldiers — night  after  night  she  toiled,  and  long  after  others  were 


MRS.  NELLIE    MARIA    TAYLOR.  239 

at  rest  she  was  busy  for  the  suffering."  And  another  makes  it 
a  matter  of  personal  thankfulness  that  he  should  have  been 
applied  to  for  information  in  regard  to  this  "blessed  woman/' and 
repeats  his  thanks  "  for  himself  and  hundreds  of  others/'  that  her 
services  are  to  be  recorded  in  this  book. 

Having  great  facility  in  the  use  of  her  pen,  Mrs.  Taylor  made 
herself  especially  useful  in  writing  letters  for  the  soldiers.  During 
the  year  from  January  1864  to  January  1865,  she  wrote  no  less  than 
eleven  hundred  and  seventy-four  letters  for  these  men,,  and  even 
now,  since  the  close  of  the  war,  her  labors  in  that  direction  do  not 
end.  She  is  in  constant  communication  with  friends  of  soldiers 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  collecting  for  them  every  item  of  per 
sonal  information  in  her  power,  after  spending  hours  in  search 
ing  hospital  records,  and  all  other  available  sources  for  obtaining 
the  desired  knowledge. 

During  the  summer  of  1864,  her  duties  were  more  arduous 
than  at  any  other  time.  She  distributed  several  thousands  of 
dollars  worth  of  goods,  for  the  Cincinnati  Branch  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,  and  on  the  1st  of  June,  when  her 
vacation  commenced,  she  undertook  the  management  of  the 
Dietetic  Department  in  the  University  Hospital,  the  largest  in 
New  Orleans.  From  that  time  till  October  1st,  she,  with  her 
daughter  and  four  other  ladies,  devoted  like  herself  to  the  work, 
with  their  own  hands,  with  the  assistance  of  one  servant  only, 
cooked,  prepared,  and  administered  all  the  extra  diet  to  the 
patients,  numbering  frequently  five  or  six  hundred  on  diet,  at  one 
time. 

Two  of  these  ladies  were  constantly  at  the  hospital,  Mrs.  Tay 
lor  frequently  four  days  in  the  week,  and  when  not  there,  in  other 
hospitals,  not  allowing  herself  one  day  at  home  during  the  whole 
vacation.     When  obliged  to  return  to  her  school,  her  daughter, 
Miss  Alice  Taylor,  took  her  place,  and  with  the  other  ladies  con 
tinued,  Mrs.  Taylor  giving  her  assistance  on  Saturday  and  Sun 
day,  till  January  1st,  1865,  when  the  hospital  was  finally  closed. 


240 

Mrs.  Taylor  has  been  greatly  aided  by  her  children ;  her 
daughter,  as  nobly  patriotic  as  herself,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
war  refusing  to  present  a  Confederate  flag  to  a  company  unless 
beneath  an  arch  ornamented,  and  with  music  the  same  as  on  occa 
sion  of  presenting  a  banner  to  a  political  club  the  preceding  year 
— viz:  the  arch  decorated  with  United  States  flags,  and  the 
national  airs  played.  Her  son  "Johnnie"  is  as  well  known  and 
as  beloved  by  the  soldiers  as  his  mother,  and  well  nigh  sacrificed 
his  noble  little  life  to  his  unwearied  efforts  in  their  behalf. 

It  is  out  of  the  fiery  furnace  of  trial  that  such  nobly  devoted 
persons  as  Mrs.  Taylor  and  her  family  come  forth  to  their  mission 
of  beneficence.  Persecuted,  compelled  to  make  the  most  terrible 
and  trying  sacrifices,  in  dread  and  danger  continually,  the  work 
of  the  loyal  women  of  the  South  stands  pre-eminent,  among  the 
labors  of  the  noble  daughters  of  America.  And  of  these,  Mrs. 
Taylor  and  her  associates,  and  of  Union  women  throughout  the 
South,  it  may  well  and  truly  be  said,  in  the  words  of  Holy  Writ: 
Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously,  but  thou  excellest  them 
all. 


MRS.    ADALINE    TYLER. 


RS.  TYLER,  the  subject  of  the  following  sketch,  is  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  and  for  many  years  was  a 
resident  of  Boston,  in  which  city  from  her  social  posi 
tion  and  her  piety  and  benevolence  she  was  widely 
known.  She  is  a  devout  member  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  greatly  trusted  and  respected  both  by  clergy  and  laity. 

In  1856,  she  removed  from  Boston  to  Baltimore,  Maryland. 
It  was  the  desire  of  Bishop  Whittingham  of  that  Diocese  to 
institute  there  a  Protestant  Sisterhood,  or  Order  of  Deaconesses, 
similar  to  those  already  existing  in  Germany,  England,  and  per 
haps  other  parts  of  Europe.  Mrs.  Tyler,  then  a  widow,  was 
invited  to  assume  the  superintendence  of  this  order — a  band  of 
noble  and  devout  women  who  turning  resolutely  from  the  world 
and  its  allurements  and  pleasures,  desired  to  devote  their  lives 
and  talents  to  works  of  charity  and  mercy. 

To  care  for  the  sick,  to  relieve  all  want  and  suffering  so  far  as 
lay  in  their  power,  to  administer  spiritual  comfort,  to  give  of 
their  own  substance,  and  to  be  the  almoners  of  those  pious  souls 
whose  duties  lay  in  other  directions,  and  whose  time  necessarily 
absorbed  in  other  cares,  did  not  allow  the  same  self-devotion — 
this  was  the  mission  which  they  undertook,  and  for  years  prose 
cuted  with  untiring  energy,  and  undoubted  success. 

In  addition  to  her  general  superintendence  of  the  order,  Mrs. 
Tyler  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Church  Home,  a  charitable 
Institution  conducted  by  the  Sisterhood,  and  occupied  herself  in 

31  241 


242 

a  variety  of  pious  and  benevolent  duties,  among  which  were 
visiting  the  sick,  and  comforting  the  afflicted  and  prisoners. 
Among  other  things  she  devoted  one  day  in  each  week  to  visiting 
the  jail  of  Baltimore,  at  that  time  a  crowded  and  ill-conducted 
prison,  and  the  abode  of  a  great  amount  of  crime  and  suffering. 

Mrs.,  then  known  as  Sister  Tyler,  had  been  five  years  in  Bal 
timore,  filling  up  the  time  with  her  varied  duties  and  occupa 
tions,  when  the  storm  that  had  so  long  threatened  the  land,  burst 
in  all  the  thunderbolts  of  its  fury.  Secession  had  torn  from  the 
Union  some  of  the  fairest  portions  of  its  domain,  and  already 
stood  in  hostile  attitude  all  along  the  borders  of  the  free  North. 
The  President,  on  the  15th  of  April,  1861,  issued  his  first  pro 
clamation,  announcing  the  presence  of  rebellion,  commanding  the 
insurgents  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  return  to  their  allegiance 
within  twenty  days,  and  calling  on  the  militia  of  the  several 
loyal  States  to  the  number  of  seventy-five  thousand,  to  assemble 
for  the  defense  of  their  country. 

This  proclamation,  not  unexpected  at  the  North,  yet  sent  a 
thrill  of  mingled  feeling  all  through  its  bounds.  The  order  was 
promptly  obeyed,  and  \vitliout  delay  the  masses  prepared  for  the 
struggle  which  lay  before  them,  but  of  which,  as  yet,  no  prophetic 
visions  foretold  the  progress  or  result.  Immediately  regiment 
after  regiment  was  hurried  forward  for  the  protection  of  the 
Capitol,  supposed  to  be  the  point  most  menaced.  Among  these, 
and  of  the  very  earliest,  was  the  Sixth  Regiment  Massachusetts 
Volunteers,  of  which  the  nucleus  was  the  Lowell  City  Guards. 

On  the  memorable  and  now  historical  19th  of  April,  this  regi 
ment  while  hurrying  to  the  defense  of  Washington  was  assailed 
by  a  fierce  and  angry  mob  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  and  several 
of  its  men  were  murdered;  and  this  for  marching  to  the  defense 
of  their  country,  to  which  the  citizens  of  Baltimore,  their  assail 
ants,  were  equally  pledged. 

This  occurred  on  a  Friday,  the  day  as.  before  stated,  set  apart 
by  Mrs.  Tyler  for  her  weekly  visit  to  the  jail.  The  news  of  the 


MRS.  ADALINE    TYLER.  243 

riot  reached  her  as  she  was  about  setting  out  upon  this  errand  of 
mercy,  and  caused  her  to  postpone  her  visit  for  several  hours,  as 
her  way  lay  through  some  portion  of  the  disturbed  district. 

When,  at  last,  she  did  go,  a  degree  of  quiet  prevailed,  though 
^he  saw  wounded  men  being  conveyed  to  their  homes,  or  to  places 
where  they  might  be  cared  for,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  public 
excitement  had  not  subsided  with  hostilities.  Much  troubled 
concerning  the  fate  of  the  Northern  men — men,  it  must  be 
remembered,  of  her  own  State — who  had  been  stricken  down, 
she  hastened  to  conclude  as  soon  as  possible  her  duties  at  the 
jail,  and  returning  homeward  despatched  a  note  to  a  friend  asking 
him  to  ascertain  and  inform  her  what  had  become  of  the  wounded 
soldiers.  The  reply  soon  came,  with  the  tidings  that  they  had 
been  conveyed  to  one  of  the  Station  Houses  by  the  Police,  and 
were  said  to  have  been  cared  for,  though  the  writer  had  not  been 
allowed  to  enter  and  satisfy  himself  that  such  was  the  case. 

This  roused  the  spirit  of  Mrs.  Tyler.  Here  was  truly  a  work 
of  "  charity  and  mercy,"  and  it  was  clearly  her  duty,  in  pursu 
ance  of  the  objects  to  which  she  had  devoted  her  life,  to  ensure 
the  necessary  care  of  these  wounded  and  suffering  men  who  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  those  so  inimical  to  them. 

It  was  now  late  in  the  afternoon.  Mrs.  Tyler  sent  for  a  car 
riage  which  she  was  in  the  habit  of  using  whenever  need  required, 
and  the  driver  of  which  was  honest  and  personally  friendly, 
though  probably  a  secessionist,  and  proceeded  to  the  Station 
House.  By  this  time  it  was  quite  dark,  and  she  was  alone. 
Alighting  she  asked  the  driver  to  give  her  whatever  aid  she 
might  need,  and  to  come  to  her  should  he  even  see  her  beckon 
from  a  window,  and  he  promised  compliance. 

She  knocked  at  the  door,  but  on  telling  her  errand  was  denied 
admittance,  with  the  assurance  that  the  worst  cases  had  been  sent 
to  the  Infirmary,  while  those  who  were  in  the  upper  room  of  the 
Station  House  had  been  properly  cared  for,  and  were  in  bed  for 
the  night.  She  again  asked  to  be  allowed  to  see  them,  adding 


244 

that  the  care  of  the  suffering  was  her  life  work,  and  she  would 
like  to  assure  herself  that  they  needed  nothing.  She  was  again 
denied  more  peremptorily  than  before. 

"Very  well/7  she  replied,  "  I  am  myself  a  Massachusetts  woman, 
seeking  to  do  good  to  the  citizens  of  my  own  state.  If  not  allowed 
to  do  so,  I  shall  immediately  send  a  telegram  to  Governor  Andrew, 
informing  him  that  my  request  is  denied." 

This  spirited  reply  produced  the  desired  result,  and  after  a 
little  consultation  among  the  officials,  who  probably  found  the 
Governor  of  a  State  a  much  more  formidable  antagonist  than  a 
woman,  coming  alone  on  an  errand  of  mercy,  the  doors  were 
opened  and  she  was  conducted  to  that  upper  room  where  the 
fallen  patriots  lay. 

Two  were  already  dead.  Two  or  three  were  in  bed,  the  rest 
lay  in  their  misery  upon  stretchers,  helpless  objects  of  the  tongue 
abuse  of  the  profane  wretches  who,  "  dressed  in  a  little  brief 
authority/'  walked  up  and  down,  thus  pouring  out  their  wrath. 
All  the  wounded  had  been  drugged,  and  were  either  partially  or 
entirely  insensible  to  their  miseries.  Some  eight  or  ten  hours 
had  elapsed  since  the  wounds  were  received,  but  no  attention  had 
been  paid  to  them,  further  than  to  staunch  the  blood  by  thrust 
ing  into  them  large  pieces  of  cotton  cloth.  Even  their  clothes 
had  not  been  removed.  One  of  them  (Coburn)  had  been  shot  in 
the  hip,  another  (Sergeant  Ames)  was  wounded  in  the  back  of 
the  neck,  just  at  the  base  of  the  brain,  apparently  by  a  heavy 
glass  bottle,  for  pieces  of  the  glass  yet  remained  in  the  wound, 
and  lay  in  bed,  still  in  his  soldier's  overcoat,  the  rough  collar  of 
which  irritated  the  ghastly  wound.  These  two  were  the  most 
dangerously  hurt. 

Mrs.  Tyler  with  some  difficulty  obtained  these  men,  and  pro 
curing,  by  the  aid  of  her  driver,  a  furniture  van,  had  them  laid 
upon  it  and  conveyed  to  her  house,  the  Deaconesses7  Home. 
Here  a  surgeon  was  called,  their  wounds  dressed,  and  she  extended 
to  them  the  care  and  kindness  of  a  mother,  until  they  were  so 


MRS.  ADALINE    TYLER.  245 

nearly  well  as  to  be  able  to  proceed  to  their  own  homes.  She  during 
this  time  refused  protection  from  the  police,  and  declared  that  she 
felt  no  fears  for  her  own  safety  while  thus  strictly  in  the  line  of 
the  duties  to  which  her  life  was  pledged. 

This  was  by  no  means  the  last  work  of  this  kind  performed  by 
Sister  Tyler.  Other  wounded  men  were  received  and  cared  for 
by  her — one  a  German,  member  of  a  Pennsylvania  Regiment, 
(who  was  accidentally  shot  by  one  of  his  own  comrades)  whom 
she  nursed  to  health  in  her  own  house. 

For  her  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Massachusetts  men  she  received 
the  personal  acknowledgments  of  the  Governor,  President  of  the 
Senate,  and  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  that  State, 
and  afterwards  resolutions  of  thanks  were  passed  by  the  Legisla 
ture,  or  General  Court,  which,  beautifully  engrossed  upon  parch 
ment,  and  sealed  with  the  seal  of  the  Commonwealth,  were  pre 
sented  to  her. 

In  all  that  she  did,  Mrs.  Tyler  had  the  full  approval  of  her 
Bishop,  as  well  as  of  her  own  conscience,  while  soon  after  at  the 
suggestion  of  Bishop  Whittingham,  the  Surgeon-General  offered, 
and  indeed  urged  upon  her,  the  superintendency  of  the  Camden 
Street  Hospital,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  Pier  experience  in  the 
management  of  the  large  institution  she  had  so  long  superintended, 
her  familiarity  with  all  forms  of  suffering,  as  well  as  her  natural 
tact  and  genius,  and  her  high  character,  eminently  fitted  her  for 
this  position. 

Her  duties  were  of  course  fulfilled  in  the  most  admirable  man 
ner,  and  save  that  she  sometimes  came  in  contact  with  the  mem 
bers  of  some  of  the  volunteer -associations  of  ladies  who,  in  their 
commendable  anxiety  to  minister  to  the  suffering  soldiers,  occa 
sionally  allowed  their  zeal  to  get  the  better  of  their  discretion, 
gave  satisfaction  to  all  concerned.  She  did  not  live  in  the  Hos 
pital,  but  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  time  there  during  the  year 
of  her  connection  with  it.  Circumstances  at  last  decided  her  to 
leave.  Her  charge  she  turned  over  to  Miss  Williams,  of  Boston, 


246  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

whom  she  had  herself  brought  thither,  and  then  went  northward 
to  visit  her  friends. 

She  had  not  long  been  in  the  city  of  New  York  before  she  was 
urgently  desired  by  the  Surgeon-General  to  take  charge  of  a  large 
hospital  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  just  established  and  greatly 
needing  the  ministering  aid  of  women.  She  accepted  the  appoint 
ment,  and  proceeding  to  Boston  selected  from  among  her  friends, 
and  those  who  had  previously  offered  their  services,  a  corps  of 
excellent  nurses,  who  accompanied  her  to  Chester. 

In  this  hospital  there  was  often  from  five  hundred  to  one  thou 
sand  sick  and  wounded  men,  and  Mrs.  Tyler  had  use  enough  for 
the  ample  stores  of  comforts  which,  by  the  kindness  of  her  friends 
in  the  east,  were  continually  arriving.  Indeed  there  was  never  a 
time  when  she  was  not  amply  supplied  with  these,  and  witli 
money  for  the  use  of  her  patients. 

She  remained  at  Chester  a  year,  and  was  then  transferred  to 
Annapolis,  where  she  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Naval  School 
Hospital,  remaining  there  until  the  latter  part  of  May,  1864. 

This  was  a  part  of  her  service  which  perhaps  drew  more 
heavily  than  any  other  upon  the  sympathies  and  heart  of  Mrs. 
Tyler.  Here,  during  the  period  of  her  superintendency,  the  poor 
wrecks  of  humanity  from  the  prison  pens  of  Andersonville  and 
Belle  Isle  were  brought,  an  assemblage  of  such  utter  misery,  such 
dreadful  suffering,  that  words  tail  in  the  description  of  it.  Here 
indeed  was  a  "  work  of  charity  and  mercy/'  such  as  had  never 
before  been  presented  to  this  devoted  woman ;  such,  indeed,  as  the 
world  had  never  seen. 

Most  careful,  tender,  and  kindly  were  the  ministrations  of  Mrs. 
Tyler  and  her  associates — a  noble  band  of  women — to  these; 
wretched  men.  Filth,  disease,  and  starvation  had  done  their 
work  upon  them.  Emaciated,  till  only  the  parchment-like  skin 
covered  the  protruding  bones,  many  of  them  too  feeble  for  the 
least  exertion,  arid  their  minds  scarcely  stronger  than  their  bodies, 


MilS.  ADALINE    TYLER.  247 

they  were  indeed  a  spectacle  to  inspire,  as  they  did,  the  keenest 
sympathy,  and  to  call  for  every  effort  of  kindness. 

Mrs.  Tyler  procured  a  number  of  photographs  of  these  wretched 
men,  representing  them  in  all  their  squalor  and  emaciation. 
These  were  the  first  which  were  taken,  though  the  Government 
afterwards  caused  some  to  be  made  which  were  widely  distributed. 
With  these  Mrs.  Tyler  did  much  good.  She  had  a  large  number 
of  copies  printed  in  Boston,  after  her  return  there,  and  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  which  she  afterwards  visited,  often 
had  occasion  to  bring  them  forward  as  unimpeachable  witnesses 
of  the  truth  of  her  own  statements.  Sun  pictures  cannot  lie,  and 
the  sun's  testimony  in  these  brought  many  a  heart  shudderingly 
to  a  belief  which  it  had  before  scouted.  In  Europe,  particularly, 
both  in  England  and  upon  the  Continent,  these  pictures  com 
pelled  credence  of  those  tales  of  the  horrors  and  atrocities  of  rebel 
prison  pens,  which  it  had  long  been  the  fashion  to  hold  as  mere 
sensation  stories,  and  libels  upon  the  chivalrous  South. 

Whenever  referring  to  her  work  at  Annapolis  for  the  returned 
prisoners,  Mrs.  Tyler  takes  great  pleasure  in  expressing  her  ap 
preciation  of  the  valuable  and  indefatigable  services  of  the  late 
Dr.  Vanderkieft,  Surgeon  in  charge  of  the  Naval  School  Hospital. 
In  his  efforts  to  resuscitate  the  poor  victims  of  starvation  and 
cruelty,  he  was  indefatigable,  never  sparing  himself,  but  bestowing 
upon  them  his  unwearied  personal  attention  and  sympathy.  In 
this  he  was  aided  by  his  wife,  herself  a  true  Sister  of  Charity. 

Mrs.  Tyler  also  gives  the  highest  testimony  to  the  services  and 
personal  worth  of  her  co-workers,  Miss  Titcomb,  Miss  Hall,  and 
others,  who  gave  themselves  with  earnest  zeal  to  the  cause,  and 
feels  how  inadequate  would  have  been  her  utmost  efforts  amid  the 
multitude  of  demands,  but  for  their  aid.  It  is  to  them  chiefly 
due  that  so  many  healthy  recreations,  seasons  of  amusement  and 
religious  instruction  were  given  to  the  men. 

During  and  subsequent  to  the  superintendency  of  Mrs.  Tyler 
at  Annapolis  a  little  paper  was  published  weekly  at  the  hospital, 


248  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

under  the  title  of  "  The  Crutch."  This  was  well  supplied  with 
articles,  many  of  them  of  real  merit,  both  by  officials  and  pa 
tients.  Whenever  an  important  movement  took  place,  or  a  bat 
tle,  it  was  the  custom  to  issue  a  small  extra  giving  the  telegraphic 
account ;  when,  if  it  were  a  victory,  the  feeble  sufferers  who  had 
sacrificed  so  much  for  their  country,  would  spend  the  last  rem 
nants  of  their  strength,  and  make  the  very  welkin  ring,  with 
their  shouts  of  gladness. 

Exhausted  by  her  labors,  and  the  various  calls  upon  her  efforts, 
Mrs.  Tyler,  in  the  spring  of  1864,  was  at  length  obliged  to  send 
in  her  resignation.  Her  health  seemed  utterly  broken  down,  and 
her  phvsicians  and  friends  saw  in  an  entire  change  of  air  and 

1       •>  O 

scene  the  best  hope  of  her  recovery.  She  had  for  some  time  been 
often  indisposed,  and  her  illness  at  last  terminated  in  fever  and 
chills.  Though  well  accustomed  during  her  long  residence  to  the 
climate  of  Maryland,  she  no  longer  possessed  her  youthful  pow 
ers  of  restoration  and  reinvigoration.  Accordingly  it  was  deter 
mined  that  a  sea  voyage,  and  a  tour  in  Europe  were  therefore 
advised  as  essential  to  her  recovery. 

She  left  the  Naval  School  Hospital  on  the  27th  of  May,  1864, 
and  set  sail  from  New  York  on  the  15th  of  June. 

The  disease  did  not  succumb  at  once,  as  was  hoped.  She 
endured  extreme  illness  and  lassitude  during  her  voyage,  and  was 
completely  prostrated  on  her  arrival  in  Paris  where  she  lay  three 
weeks  ill,  before  being  able  to  proceed  by  railroad  to  Lucerne, 
Switzerland,  and  rejoin  her  sister  who  had  been  some  months  in 
Europe,  and  who,  with  her  family,  were  to  be  the  traveling  com 
panions  of  Mrs.  Tyler.  Arrived  at  Lucerne,  she  was  again  pros 
trated  by  chills  and  fever,  and  only  recovered  after  removal  to 
the  dryer  climate  of  Berlin.  The  next  year  she  was  again  ill 
with  the  same  disease  after  a  sojourn  among  the  dykes  and  canals 
of  Holland. 

Mrs.  Tyler  spent  about  eighteen  months  in  Europe,  traveling 
over  various  parts  of  the  Continent,  and  England,  where  she 


MRS.  AD  ALINE    TYLER.  249 

remained  four  or  five  months,  returning  to  her  native  land  in 
November,  1865,  to  find  the  desolating  war  which  had  raged 
here  at  the  time  of  her  departure  at  an  end.  Her  health  had 
been  by  this  time  entirely  re-established,  and  she  is  happy  in  the 
belief  that  long  years  of  usefulness  yet  remain  to  her. 

Ardent  and  fearless  in  her  loyalty  to  her  Government,  Mrs. 
Tyler  had  ample  opportunities,  never  neglected,  to  impress  the 
truth  in  regard  to  our  country  and  its  great  struggle  for  true 
liberty,  upon  the  minds  of  persons  of  all  classes  in  Europe.  Her 
letters  of  introduction  from  her  friends,  from  Bishop  Whittingham 
and  others,  brought  her  into  frequent  contact  with  people  of 
cultivation  and  refinement  who,  like  the  masses,  yet  held  the 
popular  belief  in  regard  to  the  oppression  and  abuse  of  the  South 
by  the  North,  a  belief  which  Mrs.  Tyler  even  at  the  risk  of 
offending  numerous  Southern  friends  by  her  championship,  was 
sure  to  combat.  Like  other  intelligent  loyal  Americans  she  was 
thus  the  means  of  spreading  right  views,  and  accomplishing 
great  good,  even  Avhile  in  feeble  health  and  far  from  her  own 
country.  For  her  services  in  this  regard  she  might  well  have 
been  named  a  Missionary  of  Truth  and  Liberty. 

One  instance  of  her  experience  in  contact  with  Southern  sym 
pathizers  with  the  Rebellion,  we  take  the  liberty  to  present  to  the 
readers  of  this  sketch.  Mrs.  Tyler  was  in  London  when  the 
terrible  tidings  of  that  last  and  blackest  crime  of  the  Rebellion — 
the  assassination  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  received.  She  was 
paying  a  morning  visit  to  an  American  friend,  a  Southerner  and 
a  Christian,  when  the  door  was  suddenly  thrust  open  and  a 
fiendish-looking  man  rushed  in,  vociferating,  "Have  you  heard 
the  news  ?  Old  Abe  is  assassinated !  Seward  too !  Johnson  es 
caped.  Now  if  God  will  send  an  earthquake  and  swallow  up 
the  whole  North — men,  women,  and  children,  /  will  say  His 
name  be  praisod !" 

All  this  was  uttered  as  in  one  breath,  and  then  the  restless 
form,  and  fierce  inflamed  visage  as  suddenly  disappeared,  leaving 

32 


250 

horrid  imprecations  upon  the  ears  of  the  listeners,  who  never 
supposed  the  fearful  tale  could  be  true.  Mrs.  Tyler's  friend 
offered  the  only  extenuation  possible — the  man  had  abeen  on 
board  the  Alabama  and  was  very  bitter."  But  in  Mrs.  Tyler's 
memory  that  fearful  deed  is  ever  mingled  with  that  fiendish  faee 
and  speech. 

The  next  day  the  Rebel  Commissioner  Mason,  replying  to 
some  remarks  of  the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Adarns,  in  the 
Times,  took  occasion  most  emphatically  to  deprecate  the  insinu 
ation  that  the  South  had  any  knowledge  of,  or  complicity  in  this 
crime. 


MRS.    WILLIAM     H.    HOLSTEIN. 


T  the  opening  of  the  war  Mrs.  Holstein  was  residing 
in   a   most  pleasant  and   delightful   country  home  at 


Upper  Merion,  Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania. 
In  the  words  of  one  who  knows  and  appreciates  her 
well — "  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  are  people  of  considerable  wealth, 
and  unexceptionable  social  position,  beloved  and  honored  by  all 
who  know  them,  who  voluntarily  abandoned  their  beautiful 
home  to  live  for  years  in  camps  and  hospitals.  Their  own  deli 
cacy  and  modesty  would  forbid  them  to  speak  of  the  work  they 
accomplished,  and  no  one  can  ever  know  the  greatness  of  its 
results." 

As  Mrs.  Holstein  was  always  accompanied  by  her  husband, 
and  this  devoted  pair  were  united  in  this  great  patriotic  and 
kindly  work,  as  in  all  the  other  cases,  duties  and  pleasures  of 
life,  it  would  be  almost  impossible,  even  if  it  were  necessary,  to 
give  any  separate  account  of  her  services  for  the  army.  This  is 
shown  in  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter,  probably  not 
intended  for  publication,  but  which,  in  a  spirit  far  removed  from 
that  of  self-praise,  gives  an  account  of  the  motives  and  feelings 
which  actuated  her,  and  of  the  opening  scenes  of  her  public 
services. 

"The  story  of  my  work,  blended  as  it  is,  (and  should  be)  so 
intimately  with  that  of  my  husband,  in  his  earnest  wish  to  carry 
out  what  we  felt  to  be  simply  a  matter  of  duty,  is  like  an  'oft 
told  tale'  not  worth  repeating.  Like  all  other  loyal  women  in 

251 


252  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  AVAR. 

our  land,  at  the  first  sound  and  threatening  of  war,  there  sprang 
up  in  my  heart  an  uncontrollable  impulse  to  do,  to  act;  for  any 
thing  but  idleness  when  our  country  was  in  peril  and  her  sons 
marching  to  battle. 

"  It  seemed  that  the  only  help  woman  could  give  was  in  pro 
viding  comforts  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  to  this,  for  a  time, 
I  gave  my  undivided  attention.  I  felt  sure  there  was  work  for 
me  to  do  in  this  war;  and  when  my  mother  would  say  'I  hope, 
my  child,  it  will  not  be  in  the  hospitals/ — my  response  was  ever 
the  same — 'Wherever  or  whatever  it  may  be,  it  shall  be  done 
with  all  my  heart/ 

"At  length  came  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  from  among  us 
six  ladies  went  to  spend  ten  days  in  caring  for  the  wounded. 
But  craven-like,  I  shrank  instinctively  from  such  scenes,  and 
declined  to  join  the  party.  But  when  my  husband  returned  from 
there,  one  week  after  the  battle,  relating  such  unheard  of  stories 
of  suffering,  and  of  the  help  that  was  needed,  I  hesitated  no 
longer.  In  a  few  days  we  collected  a  car  load  of  boxes,  contain 
ing  comforts  and  delicacies  for  the  wounded,  and  had  the  satis 
faction  of  taking  them  promptly  to  their  destination. 

"The first  wounded  and  the  first  hospitals  I  saw  I  shall  never 
forget,  for  then  flashed  across  my  mind,  '  This  is  the  work  God 
has  given  you  to  do,'  and  the  vow  was  made,  'While  the  war 
lasts  we  stand  pledged  to  aid,  as  far  as  is  in  our  power,  the  sick 
and  suffering.  We  have  no  right  to  the  comforts  of  our  home, 
while  so  many  of  the  noblest  of  our  land  so  willingly  renounce 
theirs/  The  scenes  of  Antietam  are  graven  as  with  an  'iron  pen' 
upon  my  mind.  The  place  ever  recalls  throngs  of  horribly 
wounded  men  strewn  in  every  direction.  So  fearful  it  all  looked 
to  me  then,  that  I  thought  the  choking  sobs  and  blinding  tears 
would  never  admit  of  my  being  of  any  use.  To  suppress  them, 
and  to  learn  to  be  calm  under  all  circumstances,  was  one  of  the 
hardest  lessons  the  war  taught. 

"  We  gave  up  our  sweet  country  home,  and  from  that  date 


MRS.  WILLIAM    II .  IIOLSTEIN.  253 

were  '  dwellers  in  tents/  occupied  usually  in  field  hospitals, 
choosing  that  work  because  there  was  the  greatest  need,  and 
knowing  that  while  many  were  willing  to  work  at  home,  but  few 
could  go  to  the  front." 

From  that  time,  the  early  autumn  of  1862,  until  July,  1865, 
Mrs.  Holstein  was  constantly  devoted  to  the  work,  not  only  in 
camps  and  hospitals,  but  in  traveling  from  place  to  place  and 
enlisting  the  more  energetic  aid  of  the  people  by  lecturing  and 
special  appeals. 

At  Antietam  Mrs.  Holstein  found  the  men  she  had  come  to 
care  for,  those  brave,  suffering  men,  lying  scattered  all  over  the 
field,  in  barns  and  sheds,  under  the  shelter  of  trees  and  fences,  in 
need  of  every  comfort,  but  bearing  their  discomforts  and  pain 
without  complaint  or  murmuring,  and  full  of  gratitude  to  those 
who  had  it  in  their  powder  to  do  anything,  ever  so  little,  for  their 
relief. 

Here  she  encountered  the  most  trying  scenes — a  boy  of  seven 
teen  crying  always  for  his  mother  to  come  to  him,  or  to  be  per 
mitted  to  go  to  her,  till  the  great  stillness  of  death  fell  upon 
him;  agonized  wives  seeking  the  remains  of  the  lost,  sorrowing 
relatives,  of  all  degrees,  some  confirmed  in  their  worst  fears,  some 
reassured  and  grateful — a  constant  succession  of  bewildering  emo 
tions,  of  hope,  fear,  sadness  and  joy. 

The  six  ladies  from  her  own  town,  were  still  for  a  long  time 
busy  in  their  work  of  mercy  distributing  freely,  as  they  had  been 
given,  the  supplies  with  which  they  had  been  provided.  This 
was  eminently  a  work  of  faith.  Often  the  stores,  of  one,  or  of 
many  kinds,  would  be  exhausted,  but  in  no  instance  did  Provi 
dence  fail  to  immediately  replenish  those  most  needed. 

During  the  stay  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  in  Sharpsburg,  an 
ambulance  Avas  daily  placed  at  their  disposal,  and  they  were  con 
tinually  going  about  with  it  and  finding  additional  cases  in  need 
of  every  comfort.  Supplies  were  continually  sent  from  friends  at 
home,  and  they  remained  until  the  wounded  had  all  left  save  a 


254 

few  who  were  retained  at  Smoketown  and  Locust  Spring  Hos 
pitals. 

While  the  army  rested  in  the  vicinity  of  Sharpsburg,  scores  of 
fever  patients  came  pouring  in,  making  a  fearful  addition  to  the 
hospital  patients,  and  greatly  adding  to  the  mortality. 

The  party,  consisting  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  and  a  friend  of 
theirs,  a  lady,  remained  until  their  services  were  no  longer  required, 
and  then,  about  the  1st  of  December,  returned  home.  Busied  in 
arrangement  for  the  collection  and  forwarding  of  stores,  and  in 
making  trips  to  Antietam,  Harper's  Ferry,  and  Frederick  City, 
on  similar  business,  the  days  wore  away  until  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg.  Soon  after  this  they  went  to  Virginia,  and  entered 
the  Second  Corps  Hospital  near  Falmouth.  There  in  a  Sibley 
tent  whose  only  floor  was  of  the  branches  of  the  pines — in  that 
little  Hospital  on  the  bleak  hill-side,  the  winter  wore  slowly 
away.  The  needful  army  movements  had  rendered  the  muddy 
roads  impassable.  No  chaplain  came  to  the  camp  until  these 
roads  were  again  in  good  order.  Men  sickened  and  died  with  no 
other  religious  services  performed  in  their  hearing  than  the  simple 
reading  of  Scripture  and  prayers  which  Mrs.  Holstein  was  in  the 
habit  of  using  for  them,  and  which  were  always  gladly  listened  to. 

Just  previous  to  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  Mrs.  Holstein 
returned  home  for  a  few  days,  and  was  detained  on  coming  back 
to  her  post  by  the  difficulty  of  getting  within  the  lines.  She 
found  the  hospital  moved  some  two  miles  from  its  former  location, 
and  that  many  of  her  former  patients  had  died,  or  suffered  much 
in  the  change.  After  the  battle  there  was  of  course  a  great  acces 
sion  of  wounded  men.  Some  had  lain  long  upon  the  field — one 
group  for  eleven  days,  with  wounds  undressed,  and  almost  with 
out  food.  The  rebels,  finding  they  did  not  die,  reluctantly  fed 
them  with  some  of  their  miserable  corn  bread,  and  afterwards  sent 
them  within  the  Union  lines. 

The  site  of  the  hospital  where  Mrs.  Holstein  was  now  stationed, 
was  very  beautiful.  The  surgeon  in  charge  had  covered  the  sloping 


MRS.  WILLIAM    H.   IIOLSTEIN.  255 

hill-side  with  a  flourishing  garden.  The  convalescents  had  slowly 
and  painfully  planted  flower  seeds,  and  built  rustic  arbors.  All 
things  had  begun  to  assume  the  aspect  of  a  beautiful  home. 

But  suddenly,  on  the  13th  of  June,  1863,  while  at  dinner,  the 
order  \\as  received  to  break  up  the  hospital.  In  two  hours  the 
wounded  men,  so  great  was  their  excitement  at  the  thought  of 
going  toward  home.,  were  on  their  way  to  Washington. 

All  was  excitement,  in  fact.  The  army  was  all  in  motion  as 
soon  as  possible.  Through  the  afternoon  the  work  of  destruction 
went  on.  As  little  as  possible  was  left  for  the  enemy,  and  when 
Mrs.  Holstein  awoke  the  following  morning,  the  plain  below  was 
covered  by  a  living  mass,  and  the  bayonets  were  gleaming  in  the 
brilliant  sunlight,  as  the  long  lines  were  put  in  motion,  and  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  began  its  northern  march. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  accompanied  it,  bearing  all  its  dangers 
ami  discomforts  in  company  with  the  men  with  whom  they  had 
for  the  time  cast  their  lot.  The  heat,  dust,  and  fatigue  were 
dreadful,  and  danger  from  the  enemy  was  often  imminent.  At 
Sangster's  Station,  the  breaking  down  of  a  bridge  delayed  the 
crossing  of  the  infantry,  and  the  order  was  given  to  reduce  the 
officers7  baggage  to  twenty  pounds. 

Then  came  many  of  the  officers  to  beg  leave  to  entrust  to  the 
care  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein,  money  and  valuables.  They 
received  both  in  large  amounts,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  carry 
ing  all  safely,  and  having  them  delivered  at  last  to  their  rightful 
owners. 

At  Union  Mills  a  battle  was  considered  imminent,  and  Mrs. 
ITolstein's  tent  in  the  rear  of  the  Union  army,  was  within  bugle 
call  of  the  rebel  lines.  In  the  morning  it  was  deemed  best  for 
them  to  proceed  by  railroad  to  Alexandria  and  Washington, 
whence  they  could  readily  return  whenever  needed. 

At  Washington,  Mr.  Holstein  was  threatened  by  an  attack  of 
malarious  fever,  and  they  returned  at  once  to  their  home.  While 
there,  and  he  still  unable  to  move,  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was 


256  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

fought.  In  less  than  a  week  he  left  his  bed,  and  the  devoted 
pair  proceeded  thither  to  renew  their  services,  where  they  were 
then  so  greatly  needed. 

Mrs.  Holstein's  first  night  in  this  town  was  passed  upon  the 
parlor  floor  of  a  hotel,  with  only  a  satchel  for  a  pillow,  where 
fatigue  made  her  sleep  soundly.  The  morning  saw  them  at  the 
Field  Hospital  of  the  Second  Corps,  where  they  were  enthusias 
tically  welcomed  by  their  old  friends.  Here,  side  by  side,  just  as 
they  had  been  brought  in  from  the  field,  lay  friends  and  enemies. 

Experience  had  taught  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  how  and  what 
to  do.  Very  soon  their  tent  was  completed,  their  "  Diet  Kitchen" 
arranged,  the  valuable  supplies  they  had  brought  with  them  ready 
for  distribution,  and  their  work  moving  on  smoothly  and  bene 
ficially  amid  all  the  horrors  of  this  terrible  field. 

"  There/'  reports  Mrs.  Holstein,  "  as  in  all  places  where  I  have 
known  our  brave  Union  soldiers,  they  bore  their  sufferings  bravely, 
I  might  almost  say  exultingly,  because  they  were  for  'The  Flag' 
and  our  country." 

The  scenes  of  horror  and  of  sadness  enacted  there,  have  left 
their  impress  upon  the  mind  of  Mrs.  Holstein  in  unfading  charac 
ters.  And  yet,  amidst  these  there  were  some  almost  ludicrous,  as 
for  instance,  that  of  the  soldier,  White,  of  the  Twentieth  Massa 
chusetts,  who,  supposed  to  be  dead,  was  borne,  with  two  of  his 
comrades,  to  the  grave  side,  but  revived  under  the  rude  shock 
with  which  the  stretcher  was  set  down,  and  looking  down  into 
the  open  grave  in  which  lay  a  brave  lieutenant  of  his  own  regi 
ment,  declared,  with  grim  fun,  that  he  would  not  be  "  buried  by 
that  raw  recruit,"  and  ordered  the  men  to  "  carry  him  back." 
This  man,  though  fearfully  wounded  in  the  throat,  actually  lived 
and  recovered. 

The  government  was  now  well  equipped  with  stores  and  sup 
plies,  but  Mrs.  Holstein  writes  her  testimony,  with  that  of  all 
others,  to  the  most  valuable  supplementary  aid  of  the  Sanitary 


MRS.  WILLIAM    H.  HOLSTEIN.  257 

and  Christian  Commissions,  in  caring  for  the  vast  army  of 
wounded  and  suffering  upon  this  dreadful  field. 

By  the  7th  of  August  all  had  been  removed  who  were  able 
to  bear  transportation,  to  other  hospitals.  Three  thousand  re 
mained,  who  were  placed  in  the  United  States  General  Hospital 
on  York  Turnpike.  The  Second  Corps  Hospital  was  merged  in 
this,  and  Mrs.  Holstein  remained  as  its  matron  until  its  close,  and 
was  fully  occupied  until  the  removal  of  the  hospital  and  the  dedi 
cation  of  the  National  Cemetery. 

She  then  returned  home,  but  after  rest  she  was  requested  by 
the  Sanitary  Commission  to  commence  a  tour  among  the  Aid 
Societies  of  the  State,  for  the  purpose  of  telling  the  ladies  all  that 
her  experience  had  taught  her  of  the  soldier's  needs,  and  the  best 
way  of  preparing  and  forwarding  clothing,  delicacies  and  supplies 
of  all  kinds.  She  felt  it  impossible  to  be  idle,  and  however  disa 
greeable  this  task,  she  would  not  shrink  from  it.  The  earnestness 
with  which  she  was  listened  to,  and  the  consciousness  of  the  good 
to  result  from  her  labors,  sustained  her  all  through  the  arduous 
winter's  work,  during  which  she  often  met  two  or  three  audiences 
for  an  "  hour  and  a  half  talk,"  in  the  course  of  the  day.  Her 
husband  as  usual  accompanied  her,  and  in  the  spring,  with  the 
commencement  of  Grant's  campaign  over  the  Rapidan,  they  both 
went  forward  as  agents  of  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

Through  all  this  dread  campaign  they  worked  devotedly. 
They  could  not  rest  to  be  appalled  by  its  horrors.  They  could 
not  think  of  the  grandeur  of  its  conceptions  or  the  greatness  of  its 
victories — they  could  only  work  and  wait  for  leisure  to  grasp  the 
wonder  of  the  passing  events.  As  Mrs.  Holstein  herself  says : 
"  While  living  amidst  so  much  excitement — in  the  times  which 
form  history — we  were  unconscious  of  it  all — it  was  our  daily 
l;fe!" 

Of  that  long  period,  Mrs.  Holstein  records  two  grand  ex 
periences  as  conspicuous — the  salute  which  followed  the  news  of 

33 


258  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  completion  of  Sherman's  "  March  to  the  Sea/'  and  the  explo 
sion  of  the  mine  at  City  Point. 

With  the  first,  one  battery  followed  another  with  continuous 
reverberation,  till  all  the  air  was  filled  with  the  roar  of  artillery. 
The  other  was  more  awful.  The  explosion  was  fearful.  The 
smoke  rose  in  form  like  a  gigantic  umbrella,  and  from  its  midst 
radiated  every  kind  of  murderous  missile — shells  were  thrown 
and  burst  in  all  directions,  muskets  and  every  kind  of  arms  fell 
like  a  shower  around.  Comparatively  few  were  killed — many  of 
the  men  were  providentially  out  of  the  way.  Until  the  revela 
tions  upon  the  trial  of  Wirz,  it  was  supposed  to  have  been  caused 
by  an  accident,  but  then  men  learned  that  it  was  part  of  a  fiendish 
plot  to  destroy  lives  and  Government  property. 

The  summer  of  1864  was  noted  for  its  intense  heat  and  dust, 
but  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holstein  remained  with  the  army,  absorbed  in 
their  work,  till  November,  when  Mr.  Holstein's  health  again 
failed  and  they  went  home  for  rest.  It  was  not  thought  prudent 
for  them  to  return,  and  Mrs.  Holstein,  still  accompanied  by  him, 
resumed  her  travels  and  spent  some  time  in  "talking"  to  the 
women  and  children  of  the  State.  She  had  the  satisfaction  of 
establishing  several  societies  which  worked  vigorously  during  the 
remainder  of  the  war. 

In  January,  1865,  they  went  to  Annapolis  to  do  what  they 
could  for  the  returned  Andersonville  prisoners,  and  to  learn  their 
actual  condition  and  sufferings  that  Mrs.  Holstein  might  have  a 
better  hold  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  to  whom  she  talked. 
Let  us  give  these  brief  allusions  to  her  experiences  here,  in  her 
own  words. 

"All  of  horror  I  had  seen,  or  known,  throughout  the  war, 
faded  into  insignificance  when  contrasted  with  the  results  of  this 
heinous  sin — a  systematic  course  of  starvation  of  brave  men, 
made  captive  by  the  chances  of  war.  *  *  *  My  note-book 
is  filled  with  fearful  records  of  suffering,  and  hardships  unpar 
alleled,  written  just  as  I  took  the  statements  from  the  fleshless 


MRS.  WILLIAM    H.  HOLSTEIN.  259 

lips  of  these  living  skeletons.  In  appearance  they  reminded  me 
more  of  the  bodies  I  had  seen  washed  out  upon  Antietam,  and 
other  battle-fields,  than  of  anything  else — only  they  had  ceased  to 
suffer  and  were  at  rest, — these  were  still  living,  breathing,  help 
less  skeletons. 

1  In  treason's  prison-hold 

Their  martyred  spirits  grew 
To  stature  like  the  saints  of  old, 
While,  amid  agonies  untold, 
They  starved  for  me — and  you.1 

"  We  remained  at  Annapolis  from  January  to  July,  when,  the 
war  being  closed,  the  men  were  mustered  out  of  service.  The 
few  remaining  were  sent  to  Baltimore,  and  the  hospitals  were 
vacated  and  restored  to  their  former  uses. 

"Much  of  the  summer  was  occupied  in  unfinished  hospital 
work,  and  in  looking  after  some  special  cases  of  great  interest. 
The  final  close  of  the  war  brought  with  it,  for  the  first  time  in 
all  these  long  years,  perfect  rest  to  overtasked  mind  and  wearied 
body." 


MRS.    CORDELIA    A.    P.    HARVEY. 


HE  State  of  Wisconsin  is  justly  proud  of  a  name,  which, 
while  standing  for  what  is  noble  and  true  in  man,  has 
received  an  added  lustre  in  being  made  to  express 
also,  the  sympathy,  the  goodness,  and  the  power  of 
woman.  The  death  of  the  honored  husband,  and  the  public 
labors  of  the  heroic  wife,  in  the  same  cause — the  great  cause  that 
has  absorbed  the  attention  and  the  resources  of  the  country  for 
four  years — have  given  each  to  the  other  a  peculiar  and  thrilling 
interest  to  every  loyal  American  heart. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  shortly  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh, 
Governor  Harvey  proceeded  to  the  front  with  supplies  and  medi 
cal  aid  to  assist  in  caring  for  the  wounded  among  the  soldiers 
from  his  State,  after  rendering  great  service  in  alleviating  their 
sufferings  by  the  aid  and  comfort  he  brought  with  him,  and 
reviving  their  spirits  by  his  presence.  As  he  was  about  to  em 
bark  at  Savannah  for  home,  in  passing  from  one  boat  to  another, 
lie  fell  into  the  river  and  was  drowned.  This  was  on  the 
19th  of  April,  1862,  a  day  made  memorable  by  some  of  the  most 
important  events  in  our  country's  history.  Two  days  before  he 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Harvey  the  last  sacred  letter  as  follows: 

'•'PiTTSBURG  LANDING,  April  17,  1862. 

"DEAR  WIFE: — Yesterday  was  the  day  of  my  life.  Thank  God  for  the  im 
pulse  that  brought  me  here.  I  am  well  and  have  done  more  good  by  coming 
than  I  can  well  tell  you.  In  haste, 

"  Louis." 
260 


D 


'(JKDELL\  A  I  '  !T,\K'\  i;v 


MRS.  CORDELIA    A.  P.  HARVEY.  263 

to  the  physical  suffering  of  those  around  her.  In  her  eagerness 
to  soothe  their  woes,  she  half  forgot  her  own,  and  came  to  them 
always  with  a  joyous  smile  and  words  of  cheerful  consolation. 
During  her  stay  in  St.  Louis  her  home  was  at  the  hospitable 
mansion  of  George  Partridge,  Esq.,  an  esteemed  member  of  the 
Western  Sanitary  Commission,  whose  household  seem  to  have 
vied  with  each  other  in  attention  and  kindness  to  their  guest. 

Hearing  of  great  suffering  at  Cape  Girardeau,  she  went  there 
about  the  1st  of  August,  just  as  the  First  Wisconsin  Cavalry 
were  returning  from  their  terrible  expedition  through  the  swamps 
of  Arkansas.  She  had  last  seen  them  in  all  their  pride  and 
manly  beauty,  reviewed  by  her  husband,  the  Governor,  before 
they  left  their  State.  Now  how  changed !  The  strongest,  they 
that  could  stand,  just  tottering  about,  the  very  shadows  of  their 
former  selves.  The  building  taken  as  a  temporary  hospital,  was 
filled  to  overflowing,  and  the  surgeons  were  without  hospital 
supplies,  the  men  subsisting  on  the  common  army  ration  alone. 
The  heat  was  oppressive,  and  the  diseases  of  the  most  fearfully 
contagious  character.  The  surgeons  themselves  were  appalled, 
and  the  attendants  shrank  from  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the 
removal  of  the  dead.  In  one  room  she  found  a  corpse  which 
had  evidently  lain  for  many  hours,  the  nurses  fearing  to  go  near 
and  see  if  the  man  was  dead.  With  her  own  hands  she  bound 
up  the  face,  and  emboldened  by  her  coolness,  the  burial  party 
were  induced  to  coffin  the  body  and  remove  it  from  the  house. 
Here  was  a  field  for  self-forgetfulness  and  heroic  devotion  to  a 
holy  cause;  and  here  the  light  of  woman's  sympathy  shone 
brightly  when  all  else  was  fear  and  gloom.  Patients  dying  with 
the  noxious  camp  fever  breathed  into  her  ear  their  last  messages 
to  loved  ones  at  home,  as  she  passed  from  cot  to  cot,  undaunted 
by  the  bolts  of  death  which  fell  around  her  thick  as  on  the 
battle-field.  She  set  herself  to  work  procuring  furloughs  for  such 
as  were  able  to  travel,  and  discharges  for  the  permanently  dis 
abled,  to  get  them  away  from  a  place  of  death.  To  this  end  she 


264 

brought  all  the  art  of  woman  to  work.  Once  convinced  that  the 
ooject  she  sought  was  just  and  right,  she  left  no  honorable  means 
untried  to  secure  it.  Surgeons  were  nattered  and  coaxed,  when 
ever  coaxing  and  nattering  availed;  or,  failing  in  this,  she  knew 
when  to  administer  a  gentle  threat,  or  an  intimation  that  a  report 
might  go  up  to  a  higher  official.  One  resource  failing  she  always 
had  another,  and  never  attempted  anything  without  carrying 
ii  out. 

Mrs.  Harvey  relates  many  touching  incidents  of  her  experience 
at  this  place  which  want  of  space  forbids  us  to  repeat.  One  of  her 
first  acts  was  to  telegraph  Mr.  Yeatman,  President  of  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission,  at  St.  Louis,  for  hospital  stores,  and  in  two 
days,  by  his  promptness  and  liberality,  she  received  an  abundant 
supply. 

After  several  weeks'  stay  at  Cape  Girardeau,  during  which  time 
the  condition  of  the  hospital  greatly  improved,  Mrs.  Harvey 
continued  her  tour  of  visitation  which  was  to  embrace  all  the 
general  hospitals  on  the  Mississippi  river,  as  well  as  the  regimen 
tal  hospitals  of  the  troops  of  her  own  State.  Her  face,  cheerful 
with  all  the  heart's  burden  of  grief,  gladdened  every  ward  where 
lay  a  Union  soldier,  from  Keokuk  as  far  down  as  the  sturdy 
legions  of  GRANT  had  regained  possession  of  the  Father  of  Waters. 

At  Memphis  she  was  able  to  do  great  service  in  procuring  fur 
loughs  for  men  who  would  else  have  died.  Often  has  the  writer 
heard  brave  men  declare,  with  tearful  eyes,  their  gratitude  to  her 
for  favors  of  this  kind.  Many  came  to  have  a  strange  and 
almost  superstitious  reverence  for  a  person  exercising  so  power 
ful  an  influence,  and  using  it  altogether  for  the  good  of  the  com 
mon  soldier.  The  estimate  formed  of  her  authority  by  some  of 
the  more  ignorant  class,  often  exhibited  itself  in  an  extremely 
ludicrous  manner.  She  would  sometimes  receive  letters  from 
homesick  men  begging  her  to  give  them  a  furlough  to  visit  their 
families !  and  often,  from  deserters  and  others  confined  in  military 


MES.  CORDELIA    A.  P.  HARVEY.  2G5 

prisons,  asking  to  be  set  at  liberty,  and  promising  faithful  service 
thereafter ! 

The  spring  of  1863  found  General  Grant  making  his  approaches 
upon  the  last  formidable  position  held  by  the  rebels  on  the  Mis 
sissippi.  Young's  Point,  across  the  river  from  Vicksburg,  the 
limit  of  uninterrupted  navigation  at  that  time,  will  be  remem 
bered  by  many  as  a  place  of  great  suffering  to  our  brave  boys. 
The  high  water  covering  the  low  lands  011  which  they  were 
encamped  during  the  famous  canal  experiment,  induced  much 
sickness.  Intent  to  be  where  her  kind  offices  were  most  needed, 
Mrs.  Harvey  proceeded  thither  about  the  first  of  April.  After  a 
few  weeks'  labor,  she,  herself,  overcome  by  the  terrible  miasma, 
was  taken  seriously  ill,  and  was  obliged  to  return  homeward. 
Months  of  rest,  and  a  visit  to  the  sea-side,  were  required  to  bring 
back  a  measure  of  her  wonted  strength,  and  so  for  the  summer 
her  services  were  lost  to  the  army. 

But  though  for  a  while  withheld  from  her  chosen  work,  Mrs. 
Harvey  never  forgot  the  sick  soldier.  Her  observation  while 
with  the  army,  convinced  her  of  the  necessity  of  establishing 
general  hospitals  in  the  Northern  States,  where  soldiers  suffering 
from  diseases  incurable  in  the  South,  might  be  sent  with  prospect  of 
recovery.  Her  own  personal  experience  deepened  her  conviction, 
and,  although  the  plan  found  little  favor  then  among  high  offi 
cials,  she  at  once  gave  her  heart  to  its  accomplishment.  Although 
repeated  efforts  had  been  made  in  vain  to  lead  the  Government 
into  this  policy,  Mrs.  Harvey  determined  to  go  to  Washington 
and  make  her  plea  in  person  to  the  president. 

As  the  result  of  her  interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  was 
of  the  most  cordial  character,  a  General  Plospital  was  granted  to 
the  State  of  Wisconsin ;  and  none  who  visit  the  city  of  Madison 
can  fail  to  observe,  with  patriotic  pride,  the  noble  structure  known 
as  Harvey  Hospital.  As  proof  of  the  service  it  has  done,  and 
as  fully  verifying  the  arguments  urged  by  Mrs.  Harvey  to  secure 

34 


266  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

its  establishment,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  reports  of  the  sur 
geon  in  charge  of  the  hospital. 

Her  mission  at  Washington  accomplished,  Mrs.  Harvey  returned 
immediately  home,  where  she  soon  received  official  intelligence 
that  the  hospital  would  be  located  at  Madison  and  be  prepared  for 
the  reception  of  patients  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  Upon 
this,  she  went  immediately  to  Memphis,  Tennessee,  where  she  was 
informed  by  the  medical  director  of  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps, 
that  there  were  over  one  hundred  men  in  Fort  Pickering  (used 
as  a  Convalescent  Camp)  who  had  been  vacillating  between  camp 
and  hospital  for  a  year,  and  who  would  surely  die  unless  removed 
North.  At  his  suggestion,  she  accompanied  these  sick  men  up 
the  river,  to  get  them,  if  possible,  north  of  St.  Louis.  She 
landed  at  Cairo,  and  proceeded  to  St.  Louis  by  rail,  and,  on  the 
arrival  of  the  transport,  had  transportation  to  Madison  ready  for 
the  men.  As  they  were  needy,  and  had  not  been  paid,  she  pro 
cured  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  a  change  of  clothing 
for  every  one.  Out  of  the  whole  number,  only  seven  died,  and 
only  five  were  discharged.  The  remainder  returned,  strong  and 
healthy,  to  the  service. 

Returning  South,  she  visited  all  points  on  the  river  down  to 
New  Orleans,  coming  back  to  make  her  home  for  the  time  at 
A/Ticksburg,  as  the  place  nearest  the  centre  of  her  field  of  labor. 
The  Superintendent  and  Matrons  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  extended 
to  her  a  hearty  welcome,  happy  to  have  their  institution  honored 
by  her  presence,  and  receive  her  sympathizing  and  kindly  aid. 
So  substantial  was  the  reputation  she  had  won  among  the  army, 
that  her  presence  alone,  at  a  military  post  in  the  West,  was  a  power 
for  good.  Officers  and  attendants  in  charge  of  hospitals  knew 
how  quick  she  was  to  apprehend  and  bring  to  light  any  delin 
quency  in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  profited  by  this 
knowledge  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  themselves  and  those 
thrown  upon  their  care. 

During  the  summer  of  1864,  the  garrison  of  Vicksburg  suffered 


MBS.  CORDELIA    A.  P.  HARVEY.  267 

much  from  diseases  incident  to  the  season  in  that  latitude.  Per 
haps  in  no  regiment  was  the  mortality  greater  than  in  the  Second 
Wisconsin  Cavalry.  Strong  men  sickened  and  died  within  a  few 
days,  and  others  lingered  on  for  weeks,  wasting  by  degrees,  till 
only  skin  and  bone  were  left.  The  survivors,  in  evidence  of  their 
appreciation  of  her  sympathy  and  exertions  for  them  in  their 
need,  presented  her  an  elegant  enameled  gold  watch,  beautifully 
set  with  diamonds.  The  presentation  was  an  occasion  on  which 
she  could  not  well  avoid  a  public  appearance,  and  those  who  were 
present,  must  have  wondered  that  one  of  such  power  in  private 
conversation  should  have  so  little  control,  even  of  her  own  feel 
ings,  before  an  assembly.  Mrs.  Harvey  has  never  distinguished 
herself  as  a  public  speaker.  Resolute,  impetuous,  confident  to  a 
degree  bordering  on  the  imperious,  with  power  of  denunciation  to 
equip  an  orator,  she  yet  shrinks  from  the  gaze  of  a  multitude  with 
a  woman's  modesty,  and  the  humility  of  a  child.  She  does  not 
underestimate  the  worth  of  true  womanhood  by  attempting  to 
act  a  distinctively  manly  part. 

Although  known  as  the  agent  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  Mrs. 
Harvey  has  paid  little  regard  to  state  lines,  and  has  done  a  truly 
national  work.  Throughout  the  time  of  her  stay  with  the  army, 
applications  for  her  aid  came  as  often  from  the  soldiers  of  other 
states  as  from  those  of  her  own,  and  no  one  was  ever  refused  relief 
if  to  obtain  it  was  in  her  power.  Acting  in  the  character  of  a 
friend  to  every  Union  soldier,  from  whatever  state,  she  has  had 
the  entire  confidence  of  the  great  Sanitary  Commissions,  and  ren 
dered  to  their  agents  invaluable  aid  in  the  distribution  of  goods. 
The  success  that  has  everywhere  attended  Mrs.  Harvey's  efforts, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  benefit  the  soldier,  has  given  to  her  life 
an  unusual  charm,  and  established  for  her  a  national  reputation. 

In  years  to  come,  the  war-scarred  veteran  will  recount  to  list 
ening  children  around  the  domestic  hearth,  along  with  many  a 
thrilling  deed  of  valor  performed  by  his  own  right  arm,  the  angel 
visits  of  this  lady  to  his  cot,  when  languishing  with  disease,  or 


268  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

how,  when  ready  to  die,  her  intercessions  secured  him  a  furlough, 
and  sent  him  home  to  feel  the  curative  power  of  his  native  air 
and  receive  the  care  of  loving  hands  and  hearts.  Not  a  few  un 
fortunates  will  remember,  if  they  do  not  tell,  how  her  care  reached 
them,  not  only  in  hospital  but  in  prison  as  well,  bringing  clothing 
and  comfort  to  them  when  shivering  in  their  rags ;  while  others, 
again,  will  not  be  ashamed  to  relate,  as  we  have  heard  them,  with 
tears,  their  gratitude  for  release  from  unjust  imprisonment,  secured 
by  her  faithful  exertions. 

The  close  of  the  war  has  brought  Mrs.  Harvey  back  to  her 
home,  and  closed  her  work  for  the  soldiers.  Her  attention  now 
is  turned  in  the  direction  of  soothing  the  sorrows  the  war  has 
caused  among  the  households  of  her  State.  Many  a  soldier  who 
has  died  for  his  country,  has  left  his  little  ones  to  the  charity  of  the 
world.  Through  her  exertions  the  State  of  Wisconsin  now  has 
a  Soldiers'  Orphan  Asylum,  where  all  these  children  of  our  dead 
heroes  shall  be  gathered  in.  By  a  visit  to  Washington  she  has 
recently  obtained  from  the  United  States  Government,  the  dona 
tion  of  its  interest  in  Harvey  Hospital,  and  has  turned  it  into  an 
institution  of  this  kind,  and  has  set  her  hand  and  heart  to  the 
work  of  securing  from  the  people  a  liberal  endowment  for  it. 

Happy  indeed  has  she  been  in  her  truly  Christian  work,  begun 
in  sadness  and  opening  into  the  joy  that  crowns  every  good  work. 
The  benedictions  of  thousands  of  the  brave  and  victorious  rest 
upon  her,  and  the  purest  spirits  of  the  martyred  ones  have  her  in 
their  gentle  care!  May  America  be  blest  with  many  more  like 
her  to  teach  us  by  example  the  nature  and  practice  of  a  true 
Christian  heroism. 


MRS.   SARAH    R.    JOHNSTON. 


UR  northern  women  have  won  the  highest  meed  of 
praise  for  their  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  cause 
of  their  country,  but  great  as  their  labors  and  sacrifices 
have  been,  they  are  certainly  inferior  to  those  of  some 
of  the  loyal  women  of  the  South,  who  for  the  love  they  bore  to 
their  country  and  its  flag,  braved  all  the  contempt,  obloquy  and 
scorn  which  Southern  wTonien  could  heap  upon  them — who  lived 
for  years  in  utter  isolation  from  the  society  of  relatives,  friends, 
and  neighbors,  because  they  would  render  such  aid  and  succor  as 
was  in  their  power  to  the  defenders  of  the  national  cause,  in 
prison,  in  sorrow  and  in  suffering.  Often  were  the  lives  of  those 
brave  women  in  danger,  and  the  calmness  with  which  they  met 
those  who  thirsted  for  their  blood  gave  evidence  of  their  position 
of  a  spirit  as  undaunted  and  lofty  as  any  which  ever  faced  the 
cannon's  month  or  sought  death  in  the  high  places  of  the  field. 
Among  these  heroines  none  deserves  a  higher  place  in  the  records 
of  womanly  patriotism  and  courage  than  Mrs.  Sarah  II.  John 
ston. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  Mrs.  Johnston  was  teaching  a 
school  at  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  where  she  was  born  and 
always  resided.  When  the  first  prisoners  were  brought  into  that 
place,  the  Southern  women  turned  out  in  their  carriages  and  with 
a  band  escorted  them  through  the  town,  and  when  they  filed  past 
saluted  them  with  contemptuous  epithets.  From  that  time  Mrs. 
Johnston  determined  to  devote  herself  to  the  amelioration  of  the 

269 


270 

condition  of  the  prisoners;  and  the  testimony  of  thousands  of  the 
Union  soldiers  confined  there  proved  how  nobly  she  performed 
the  duties  she  undertook.  It  was  no  easy  task,  for  she  was 
entirely  alone,  being  the  only  woman  who  openly  advocated 
Union  sentiments  and  attempted  to  administer  to  the  wants  of  the 
prisoners.  For  fifteen  months  none  of  the  women  of  Salisbury 
spoke  to  her  or  called  upon  her,  and  every  possible  indignity  was 
heaped  on  her  as  a  "Yankee  sympathizer."  Her  scholars  were 
withdrawn  from  her  school,  and  it  Avas  broken  up,  and  her  means 
were  very  limited ;  nevertheless,  she  accomplished  more  by  syste 
matic  arrangements  than  many  would  have  done  with  a  large 
outlay  of  money. 

When  the  first  exchange  of  prisoners  was  made,  she  went  to 
the  depot  to  arrange  some  pallets  for  some  of  the  sick  who  were 
leaving,  when  she  stumbled  in  the  crowd,  and  looking  down  she 
found  a  young  Federal  soldier  who  had  fainted  and  fallen,  and 
was  in  danger  of  being  trodden  to  death.  She  raised  him  up  and 
called  for  water,  but  none  of  the  people  would  get  a  drop  to  save 
a  "Yankee's"  life.  Some  of  the  soldiers  who  were  in  the  cars 
threw  their  canteens  to  her,  and  she  succeeded  in  reviving  him ; 
during  this  time  the  crowd  heaped  upon  her  every  insulting  epi 
thet  they  could  think  of,  and  her  life  even  was  in  danger.  But 
she  braved  all,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  permission  from 
Colonel  Godwin,  then  in  command  of  the  post,  who  was  a  kind- 
hearted  man,  to  let  her  remove  him  to  her  own  house,  promising 
to  take  care  of  him  as  if  he  were  her  own  son,  and  if  he  died  to 
give  him  Christian  burial.  He  was  in  the  last  stages  of  con 
sumption,  and  she  felt  sure  he  would  die  if  taken  to  the  prison 
hospital.  None  of  the  citizens  of  the  place  would  even  assist  in 
carrying  him,  and  after  a  time  two  gentlemen  from  Richmond 
stepped  forward  and  helped  convey  him  to  her  house.  There 
she  watched  over  him  for  hours,  as  he  was  in  a  terrible  state  from 
neglect,  having  had  blisters  applied  to  his  chest  which  had  never 
been  dressed  and  were  full  of  vermin. 


MIIS.  SARAH    E.  JOHNSTON.  271 

The  poor  boy,  whose  name  was  Hugh  Berry ,  from  Ohio,  only 
lived  a  few  days,  and  she  had  a  grave  dug  for  him  in  her  garden 
in  the  night,  for  burial  had  been  refused  in  the  public  grave 
yard,  and  she  had  been  threatened  that  if  she  had  him  interred 
decently  his  body  should  be  dug  up  and  buried  in  the  street. 
They  even  attempted  to  take  his  body  from  the  house  for  that 
purpose,  but  she  stood  at  her  door,  pistol  in  hand,  and  said  to 
them  that  the  first  man  who  dared  to  cross  her  threshold  for  such 
a  purpose  should  be  shot  like  a  dog.  They  did  not  attempt  it, 
and  she  performed  her  promise  to  the  letter. 

During  the  first  two  years  she  was  enabled  to  do  a  great  many 
acts  of  kindness  for  the  prisoners,  but  after  that  time  she  was 
watched  very  closely  as  a  Yankee  sympathizer,  and  the  rules  of 
the  prison  were  stricter,  and  what  she  could  do  was  done  by 
strategy. 

Her  means  were  now  much  reduced,  but  she  still  continued  in 
her  good  work,  cutting  up  her  carpets  and  spare  blankets  to 
make  into  moccasins,  and  when  new  squads  of  prisoners  arrived, 
supplied  them  with  bread  and  water  as  they  halted  in  front  of 
her  house,  which  they  were  compelled  to  do  for  hours,  waiting 
the  routine  of  being  mustered  into  the  prison.  They  were  not 
allowed  to  leave  their  ranks,  and  she  would  turn  an  old-fashioned 
windlass  herself  for  hours,  raising  water  from  her  well ;  for  the 
prisoners  were  often  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours  on  the  rail 
road  without  rations  or  water. 

Generally  the  officer  in  command  would  grant  her  request,  but 
once  a  sergeant  told  her,  in  reply,  if  she  gave  any  of  them  a  drop 
of  water  or  a  piece  of  bread,  or  dared  to  come  outside  her  gate  for 
that  purpose,  he  would  pin  her  to  the  earth  with  his  bayonet. 
She  defied  him,  and  taking  her  pail  of  water  in  one  hand,  and  a 
basket  of  bread  in  the  other,  she  walked  directly  past  him  on  her 
errand  of  mercy;  he  followed  her,  placing  his  bayonet  between 
her  shoulders,  just  so  that  she  could  feel  the  cold  steel.  She 
turned  and  coolly  asked  him  why  he  did  not  pin  her  to  the  earth, 


272 

as  he  had  threatened  to  do,  but  got  no  reply.  Then  some  of 
the  rebels  said,  "Sergeant,  you  can't  make  anything  on  that 
woman,  you  had  better  let  her  alone,"  and  she  performed  her 
work  unmolested. 

Not  content  with  these  labors,  she  visited  the  burial-place 
where  the  deceased  Union  prisoners  of  that  loathsome  prison-pen 
at  Salisbury  w^ere  buried,  and  transcribed  with  a  loving  fidelity 
every  inscription  which  could  be  found  there,  to  let  the  sorrow 
ing  friends  of  those  martyrs  to  their  country  know  where  their 
beloved  ones  are  laid.  The  number  of  these  marked  graves  is 
small,  only  thirty-one  in  all,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  four  or 
five  thousand  dead  starved  and  tortured  there  till  they  relin 
quished  their  feeble  hold  on  life,  were  buried  in  trenches  four  or 
five  deep,  and  no  record  of  their  place  of  burial  was  permitted. 
Mrs.  Johnston  also  copied  from  the  rebel  registers  at  Salisbury 
after  the  place  was  captured  the  statistics  of  the  Union  prisoners, 
admitted,  died,  and  remaining  on  hand  in  each  month  from 
October,  1864,  to  April,  1865.  The  aggregates  in  these  six 
months  were  four  thousand  and  fifty-four  admitted,  of  whom  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety -seven  died,  and  one  thousand 
six  hundred  and  fifty-seven  remained. 

Mrs.  Johnston  came  North  in  the  summer  of  1865,  to  visit  her 
daughter,  who  had  been  placed  at  a  school  in  Connecticut  by  the 
kindness  of  some  of  the  officers  she  had  befriended  in  prison; 
transportation  having  been  given  her  by  Generals  Schofield  and 
Carter,  who  testified  to  the  services  she  had  rendered  our  pri 
soners,  and  that  she  w^as  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  all  loyal  citizens. 


.Miss   E.MI  LY 


Hi; |.  .1 

\\  ,/:::-,    of 
•:-;-  •'$•  >!.- 
;:i     Uii.     h.ur;- 


EMILY    E.    PARSONS. 


MONG  the  honorable  and  heroic  women  of  iNew  Eng 
land  whose  hearts  were  immediately  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  their  country,  in  its  recent  struggle  against  the  rebel 
lion  of  the  slave  States,  and  who  prepared  themselves  to 
do  useful  service  in  the  hospitals  as  nurses,  was  Miss  Emily  E.  Par 
sons,  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  a  daughter  of  Professor  The- 
opliilus  Parsons,  of  the  Cambridge  Law  School,  and  granddaugh 
ter  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Parsons,  of  Massachusetts. 

Miss  Parsons  was  born  in  Taunton,  Massachusetts,  was  educated 
in  Boston,  and  resided  at  Cambridge  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
She  at  once  foresaw  that  there  would  be  need  of  the  same  heroic 
work  on  the  part  of  the  women  of  the  country  as  that  performed 
by  Florence  Nightingale  and  her  army  of  women  nurses  in  the 
Crimea,  and  with  her  father's  approval  she  consulted  with  Dr. 
Wyman,  of  Cambridge,  how  she  could  acquire  the  necessary 
instruction  and  training  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  skilful  nurse 
in  the  hospitals.  Through  his  influence  with  Dr.  Shaw,  the 
superintendent  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital,  she  was 
received  into  that  institution  as  a  pupil  in  the  work  of  caring  for 
the  sick,  in  the  dressing  of  wounds,  in  the  preparation  of  diet  for 
invalids,  and  in  all  that  pertains  to  a  well  regulated  hospital. 
She  was  thoroughly  and  carefully  instructed  by  the  surgeons  of 
the  hospital,  all  of  whom  took  great  interest  in  fitting  her  for  the 
important  duties  she  proposed  to  undertake,  and  gave  her  every 
opportunity  to  practice,  with  her  own  hands,  the  labors  of  a  good 

35  273 


274  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE   PIVIL  WAR. 

hospital  nurse.  Dr.  Warren  and  Dr.  Townshend,  two  distin 
guished  surgeons,  took  special  pains  to  give  her  all  necessary 
information  and  the  most  thorough  instruction.  At  the  end  of 
one  year  and  a  half  of  combined  teaching  and  practice,  she  was 
recommended  by  Dr.  Townshend  to  Fort  Schuyler  Hospital,  on 
Long  Island  Sound,  where  she  went  in  October,  1862,  and  for 
two  months  performed  the  duties  of  hospital  nurse,  in  the  most 
faithful  and  satisfactory  manner,  when  she  left  by  her  father's 
wishes,  on  account  of  the  too  great  exposure  to  the  sea,  and  went 
to  New  York. 

While  in  New  York  Miss  Parsons  wrote  to  Miss  Dix,  the 
agent  of  the  Government  for  the  employment  of  women  nurses, 
offering  her  services  wherever  they  might  be  needed,  and  received 
an  answer  full  of  encouragement  and  sympathy  with  her  wishes. 
At  the  same  time  she  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  John  C. 
Fremont,  who  wrote  to  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  at  St. 
Louis,  of  her  qualifications  and  desire  of  usefulness  in  the  hos 
pital  service,  and  she  was  immediately  telegraphed  to  come  on  at 
once  to  St.  Louis. 

At  this  time,  January,  1863,  every  available  building  in  St. 
Louis  was  converted  into  a  hospital,  and  the  sick  and  wounded 
were  brought  from  Vicksburg,  and  Arkansas  Post,  and  Helena 
up  the  river  to  be  cared  for  at  St.  Louis  and  other  military  posts. 
At  Memphis  and  Mound  City,  (near  Cairo)  at  Quincy,  Illinois, 
and  the  cities  on  the  Ohio  River,  the  hospitals  were  in  equally 
crowded  condition.  Miss  Parsons  went  immediately  to  St.  Louis 
and  was  assigned  by  Mr.  James  E.  Yeatman,  (the  President  of 
the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  and  agent  for  Miss  Dix),  to 
the  Lawson  Hospital.  In  a  few  weeks,  however,  she  was  needed 
for  a  still  more  important  service,  and  was  placed  as  head  nurse 
on  the  hospital  steamer  "City  of  Alton,"  Surgeon  Turner  in 
charge.  A  large  supply  of  sanitary  stores  were  entrusted  to  her 
care  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  and  the  steamer  pro 
ceeded  to  Vicksburg,  where  she  was  loaded  with  about  four 


EMILY    E.  PARSONS.  277 

From  this  time  she  devoted  herself  at  home  to  working  foi  the 
freedmen  and  refugees,  collecting  clothing  and  garden  seeds  for 
them,  many  boxes  of  which  she  shipped  to  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission,  at  St.  Louis,  to  be  distributed  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  where  they  were  greatly  needed,  and  were  received  as  a 
blessing  from  the  Lord  by  the  poor  refugees  and  freedmen,  who 
in  many  instances  were  without  the  means  to  help  themselves,  or 
to  buy  seed  for  the  next  year's  planting. 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  she  took  a  great  interest  in  the  Sanitary 
Fair  held  at  Chicago,  collected  many  valuable  gifts  for  it,  and 
was  sent  for  by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  to  go  out  as  one 
of  the  managers  of  the  department  furnished  by  the  New  Jeru 
salem  Church — the  different  churches  having  separate  depart 
ments  in  the  Fair.  This  duty  she  fulfilled,  with  great  pleasure 
and  success,  and  the  general  results  of  the  Fair  were  all  that 
could  be  desired. 

Returning  home  from  the  Chicago  Fair,  and  the  war  being 
ended,  Miss  Parsons  conceived  a  plan  of  establishing  in  her  own 
city  of  Cambridge,  a  Charity  Hospital  for  poor  women  and  chil 
dren.  For  this  most  praiseworthy  object  she  has  already  collected 
a  portion  of  the  necessary  funds,  which  she  has  placed  in  the 
hand  of  a  gentleman  who  consents  to  act  as  Treasurer,  and  is 
entirely  confident  of  the  ultimate  success  of  her  enterprise.  There 
is  no  doubt  but  that  she  possesses  the  character,  good  judgment, 
Christian  motive  and  perseverance  to  carry  it  through,  and  she 
has  the  encouragement,  sympathies  and  prayers  of  many  friends 
to  sustain  her  in  the  noble  endeavor. 

In  concluding  this  sketch  of  the  labors  of  Miss  Parsons  in  the 
care  and  nursing  of  our  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  and  in  the 
Sanitary  and  other  benevolent  enterprises  called  forth  by  the  war, 
it  is  but  just  to  say  that  in  every  position  she  occupied  she  per 
formed  her  part  with  judgment  and  fidelity,  and  always  brought 
to  her  work  a  spirit  animated  by  the  highest  motives,  and 
strengthened  by  communion  with  the  Infinite  Spirit,  from  whom 


278 

all  love  and  wisdom  come  to  aid  and  bless  the  children  of  men. 
Everywhere  she  went  among  the  sick  and  suffering  she  brought 
the  sunshine  of  a  cheerful  and  loving  heart,  beaming  from  a 
countenance  expressive  of  kindness,  and  good  will  and  sympathy 
to  all.  Her  presence  in  the  hospital  was  always  a  blessing,  and 
cheered  and  comforted  many  a  despondent  heart,  and  compensated 
in  some  degree,  for  the  absence  of  the  loved  ones  at  home.  Her 
gentle  ministrations  so  faithful  and  cheering,  might  well  have 
received  the  reverent  worship  bestowed  on  the  shadow  of  Florence 
Nightingale,  so  admirably  described  by  Longfellow  in  his  Saint 
Filomena : 

"  And  slow,  as  in  a  dream  of  bliss 
The  speechless  sufferer  turned  to  kiss 
Her  shadow  as  it  falls 
Upon  the  darkening  walls." 


MRS.  ALMIRA  FALES. 


RS.  FALES,  it  is  believed,  was  the  first  woman  in 
America  wko  performed  any  work  directly  tending  to 
the  aid  and  comfort  of  the  soldiers  of  the  nation  in  the 
late  war.  In  truth,  her  labors  commenced  before  any 
overt  acts  of  hostility  had  taken  place,  even  so  long  before  as 
December,  1860.  Hostility  enough  there  undoubtedly  was  in 
feeling,  but  the  fires  of  secession  as  yet  only  smouldered,  not 
bursting  into  the  lurid  flames  of  war  until  the  following  spring. 

Yet  Mrs.  Tales,  from  her  home  in  Washington,  was  a  keen 
observer  of  the  "  signs  of  the  times,"  and  read  aright  the  portents 
of  rebellion.  In  her  position,  unobserved  herself,  she  saw  and 
heard  much,  which  probably  would  have  remained  unseen  and 
unheard  by  loyal  eyes  and  ears,  had  the  haughty  conspirators 
against  the  nation's  life  dreamed  of  any  danger  arising  from  the 
knowledge  of  their  projects,  obtained  by  this  humble  woman. 

So  keen  was  the  prescience  founded  on  these  things  that,  as  has 
been  said,  she,  as  early  as  December,  1860,  scarcely  a  month  after 
the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  gave  a  pretext  for  secession 
which  its  leaders  were  eager  to  avail  themselves  of,  "  began  to 
prepare  lint  and  hospital  stores  for  the  soldiers  of  the  Union,  not 
one  of  whom  had  then  been  called  to  take  up  arms." 

Of  course,  she  was  derided  for  this  act.  Inured  to  peace,  seem 
ingly  more  eager  for  the  opening  of  new  territory,  the  spread  of 
commerce,  the  gain  of  wealth  and  power  than  even  for  the  highest 
national  honor,  the  North  would  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of 


280  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  civil   WAR. 

war  until  the  boom  of  the  guns  of  Sumter,  reverberating  from 
the  waves  of  the  broad  Atlantic,  and  waking  the  echoes  all  along 
its  shores,  burst  upon  their  ears  to  tell  in  awful  tones  that  it  had 
indeed  commenced. 

But  there  was  one — a  woman  in  humble  life,  yet  of  wonderful 
benevolence,  of  indomitable  energy,  unflagging  perseverance,  and 
unwavering  purpose,  who  foresaw  its  inevitable  coming  and  was 
prepared  for  it. 

Almira  Fales  was  no  longer  young.  She  had  spent  a  life  in 
doing  good,  and  was  ready  to  commence  another.  Her  husband 
had  employment  under  the  government  in  some  department  of 
the  civil  service,  her  sons  entered  the  army,  and  she,  too, — a 
soldier,  in  one  sense,  as  truly  as  they — since  she  helped  and 
cheered  on  the  fight. 

From  that  December  day  that  commenced  the  work,  until  long 
after  the  war  closed,  she  gave  herself  to  it,  heart  and  soul — mind 
and  body.  No  one,  perhaps,  can  tell  her  story  of  work  and  hard 
ship  in  detail,  not  even  herself,  for  she  acts  rather  than  talks  or 
writes.  "Such  women,  always  doing,  never  think  of  pausing  to 
tell  their  own  stories,  which,  indeed,  can  never  be  told ;  yet  the 
hint  of  them  can  be  given,  to  stir  in  the  hearts  of  other  women 
a  purer  emulation,  and  to  prove  to  them  that  the  surest  way  to 
happiness  is  to  serve  others  and  forget  yourself." 

In  detail  we  have  only  this  brief  record  of  what  she  has  done, 
yet  what  volumes  it  contains,  what  a  history  of  labor  and  of  self- 
sacrifice  ! 

"  After  a  life  spent  in  benevolence,  it  was  in  December,  1860, 
that  Almira  Fales  began  to  prepare  lint  and  hospital  stores  for 
the  soldiers  of  the  Union,  not  one  of  whom  had  then  been  called 
to  take  up  arms.  People  laughed,  of  course;  thought  it  a  ' freak;' 
said  that  none  of  these  things  would  ever  be  needed.  Just  as  the 
venerable  Dr.  Mott  said,  at  the  women's  meeting  in  Cooper  Insti 
tute,  after  Sumter  had  been  fired:  'Go  on,  ladies!  Get  your  lint 
ready,  if  it  will  do  your  dear  hearts  any  good,  though  I  don't 


MRS.  ALMIRA    FALES.  281 

believe  myself  that  it  will  ever  be  needed.7  Since  that  December 
Mrs.  Fales  has  emptied  over  seven  thousand  boxes  of  hospital 
stores,  and  distributed  with  her  own  hands  over  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  comforts  to  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers.  Besides,  she  supplied  personally  between  sixty  and 
seventy  forts  with  reading  matter.  She  was  months  at  sea — the 
only  woman  on  hospital  ships  nursing  the  wounded  and  dying 
men.  She  was  at  Corinth,  and  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  serving  our 
men  in  storm  and  darkness.  She  was  at  Fair  Oaks.  She  Avas 
under  fire  through  the  seven  days'  fight  on  the  Peninsula,  with 
almost  breaking  heart  ministering  on  those  bloody  fields  to  'the 
saddest  creatures  that  she  ever  saw/ 

"  Through  all  those  years,  every  day,  she  gave  her  life,  her 
strength,  her  nursing,  her  mother-love  to  our  soldiers.  For  her 
to  be  a  soldier's  nurse  meant  something  very  different  from  wear 
ing  a  white  apron,  a  white  cap,  sitting  by  a  moaning  soldier's  bed, 
looking  pretty.  It  meant  days  and  nights  of  untiring  toil;  it 
meant  the  lowliest  office,  the  most  menial  service ;  it  meant  the 
renouncing  of  all  personal  comfort,  the  sharing  of  her  last  pos 
session  with  the  soldier  of  her  country;  it  meant  patience,  and 
watching,  and  unalterable  love.  A  mother,  every  boy  who  fought 
for  his  country  was  her  boy ;  and  if  she  had  nursed  him  in  infancy, 
she  could  not  have  cared  for  him  with  a  tenderer  care.  Journey 
after  journey  this  woman  has  performed  to  every  part  of  the  land, 
carrying  with  her  some  wounded,  convalescing  soldier,  bearing 
him  to  some  strange  cottage  that  she  never  saw  before,  to  the  pale, 
weeping  woman  Avithin,  saying  to  her  with  smiling  face,  '  I  have 
brought  back  your  boy.  Wipe  your  eyes,  and  take  care  of  him.' 
Then,  with  a  fantastic  motion,  tripping  away  as  if  she  were  not 
tired  at  all,  and  had  done  nothing  more  than  run  across  the  street. 
Thousands  of  heroes  on  earth  and  in  heaven  gratefully  remember 
this  woman's  loving  care  to  them  in  the  extremity  of  anguish. 
The  war  ended,  her  work  does  not  cease.  Every  day  you  may 
find  her,  with  her  heavily-laden  basket,  in  hovels  of  white  and 


282 

black,  which  dainty  and  delicate  ladies  would  not  dare  to  enter. 
No  wounds  are  so  loathsome,  no  disease  so  contagious,  no  human 
being  so  abject,  that  she  shrinks  from  contact,  if  she  can  minister 
to  their  necessity." 

During  the  Peninsular  campaign  Mrs.  Fales  was  engaged  on 
board  the  Hospital  Transports,  during  most  of  the  trying  season 
of  1862.  She  was  at  Harrison's  Landing  in  care  of  the  wounded 
and  wearied  men  worn  down  by  the  incessant  battles  and  hard 
marches  which  attended  the  "  change  of  base"  from  the  Chicka- 
hominy  to  the  James.  She  spent  a  considerable  time  in  the 
hospitals  at  Fortress  Monroe;  and  was  active  in  her  ministra 
tions  upon  the  fields  in  the  battles  of  Centreville,  Chantilly,  and 
the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  indeed  most  of  those  of  Pope's 
campaign  in  Virginia  in  the  autumn  of  1862. 

At  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  or  rather  at  the  assault  upon 
Marye's  Heights,  in  that  fierce  assault  of  Sedgwick's  gallant 
Sixth  Corps  on  the  works  which  had  on  the  preceding  December 
defied  the  repeated  charges  of  Bnrnside's  best  troops,  Mrs.  Fales 
lost  a  son.  About  one-third  of  the  attacking  force  were  killed 
or  badly  wounded  in  the  assault,  and  among  the  rest  the  son  of 
this  devoted  mother,  who  at  that  very  hour  might  have  been 
ministering  to  the  wounded  and  dying  son  of  some  other  mother. 
This  loss  was  to  her  but  a  stimulus  to  further  efforts  and  sacrifices. 
She  mourned  as  deeply  as  any  mother,  but  not  as  selfishly,  as 
some  might  have  done.  In  this,  as  in  all  her  ways  of  life,  she 
but  carried  out  its  ruling  principle  which  was  self-devotion,  and 
deeds  not  words. 

Mrs.  Fales  may  not,  perhaps,  be  held  up  as  an  example  of 
harmonious  development,  but  she  has  surely  shown  herself  great 
in  self-forgetfulness  and  heroic  devotion  to  the  cause  of  her 
country.  In  person  she  is  tall,  plain  in  dress,  and  with  few  of 
the  fashionable  and  stereotyped  graces  of  manner.  No  longer 
young,  her  face  still  bears  ample  traces  of  former  beauty,  and  her 


MRS.  ALMIRA    TALES.  283 

large  blue  eyes  still  beam  with  the  clear  brightness  of  youth. 
But  her  hands  tell  the  story  of  hardship  and  sacrifice. 

"Poor  hands!  darkened  and  hardened  by  work,  they  never 
shirked  any  task,  never  turned  from  any  drudgery,  that  could 
lighten  the  load  of  another.  Dear  hands!  how  many  blood 
stained  faces  they  have  washed,  how  many  wounds  they  have 
bound  up,  how  many  eyes  they  have  closed  in  dying,  how  many 
bodies  they  have  sadly  yielded  to  the  darkness  of  death  I" 

She  is  full  of  a  quaint  humor,  and  in  all  her  visits  to  hospitals 
her  aim  seemed  to  be  to  awake  smiles,  and  arouse  the  cheerful 
ness  of  the  patients;  and  she  was  generally  successful  in  this, 
being  everywhere  a  great  favorite.  One  more  quotation  from  the 
written  testimony  of  a  lady  who  knew  her  well  and  we  have 
done. 

"  An  electric  temperament,  a  nervous  organization,  with  a  brain 
crowded  with  a  variety  of  memories  and  incidents  that  could  only 
come  to  one  in  a  million — all  combine  to  give  her  a  pleasant 
abruptness  of  motion  and  of  speech,  which  I  have  heard  some 
very  fine  ladies  term  insanity.  'Now  don't  you  think  she  is 
crazy,  to  spend  all  her  time  in  such  ways?7  said  one.  When  we 
remember  how  rare  a  thing  utter  unselfishness  and  self-forgetful- 
ness  is,  we  must  conclude  that  she  is  crazy.  If  the  listless  and 
idle  lives  which  we  live  ourselves  are  perfectly  sane,  then  Almira 
Fales  must  be  the  maddest  of  mortals.  But  would  it  not  be 
better  for  the  world,  and  for  us  all,  if  we  were  each  of  us  a  little 
crazier  in  the  same  direction?" 


MISS  CORNELIA  HANCOCK. 


MONO  the  most  zealous  and  untiring  of  the  women 
who  ministered  to  the  wounded  men  "at  the  front," 
in  the  long  and  terrible  campaign  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  in  1864-5,  was  Miss  Cornelia  Hancock,  of 
Philadelphia.  Of  this  lady's  early  history  or  her  previous  labors 
in  the  war,  we  have  been  unable  to  obtain  any  very  satisfactory 
information.  She  had,  we  are  told,  been  active  in  the  United 
States  General  Hospitals  in  Philadelphia,  and  had  there  learned 
what  wounded  men  need  in  the  wray  of  food  and  attention.  She 
had  also  rendered  efficient  services  at  Gettysburg.  Of  her  work 
among  the  wounded  men  at  Belle  Plain  and  Fredericksburg,  Mr. 
John  Yassar,  one  of  the  most  efficient  agents  of  the  Christian 
Commission,  writes  as  follows  : 

"  Miss  Cornelia  Hancock  was  the  first  lady  who  arrived  at 
Fredericksburg  to  aid  in  the  care  of  the  wounded.  As  one  of  the 
many  interesting  episodes  of  the  war,  it  has  seemed  that  her  good 
deeds  should  not  be  unheralded.  She  was  also  among  the  very 
first  to  arrive  at  Gettysburg  after  the  fearful  struggle,  and  for  days 
and  weeks  ministered  unceasingly  to  the  suffering.  During  the 
past  winter  she  remained  constantly  with  the  army  in  winter 
quarters,  connecting  herself  with  the  Second  Division  of  the 
Second  Corps.  So  attached  were  the  soldiers,  and  so  grateful  for 
her  ministration  in  sickness,  that  they  built  a  house  for  her,  in 
which  she  remained  until  the  general  order  for  all  to  leave  was 
given. 

284 


MISS    CORNELIA    HANCOCK.  285 

"When  the  news  of  Grant's  battles  reached  the  North,  Miss 
Hancock  left  Philadelphia  at  once  for  Washington.  Several  ap 
plications  were  made  by  Members  of  Congress  at  the  War  Depart 
ment  for  a  permit  for  her  to  go  to  the  wounded.  It  was  each  time 
declined,  as  being  unfeasible  and  improper.  With  a  woman's  tact, 
she  made  application  to  go  with  one  of  the  surgeons  then  arriving, 
as  assistant,  as  each  surgeon  was  entitled  to  one.  The  plan  suc 
ceeded,  and  I  well  remember  the  mental  ejaculation  made  when  I 
saw  her  at  such  a  time  on  the  boat.  I  lost  sight  of  her  at  Belle 
Plain,  and  had  almost  forgotten  the  circumstance,  when,  shortly 
before  our  arrival  at  Fredericks  burg,  she  passed  in  an  ambulance. 
On  being  assigned  to  a  hospital  of  the  Second  Corps,  I  found  she 
had  preceded  me,  and  was  earnestly  at  work.  It  was  no  fictitious 
effort,  but  she  had  already  prepared  soup  and  farina,  and  was 
dispensing  it  to  the  crowds  of  poor  fellows  lying  thickly  about. 

"All  day  she  worked,  paying  little  attention  to  others,  only  assi 
duous  in  her  sphere.  When,  the  next  morning,  I  opened  a  new 
hospital  at  the  Methodist  Church,  I  invited  her  to  accompany  me ; 
she  did  so;  and  if  success  and  amelioration  of  suffering  attended 
the  effort,  it  was  in  no  small  degree  owing  to  her  indefatigable 
labors.  Within  an  hour  from  the  time  one  hundred  and  twenty 
had  been  placed  in  the  building,  she  had  seen  that  good  beef  soup 
and  coffee  was  administered  to  each,  and  during  the  period  I  was 
there,  no  delicacy  or  nutriment  attainable  was  wanting  to  the 
men. 

"  Were  any  dying,  she  sat  by  to  soothe  their  last  moments,  to 
receive  the  dying  message  to  friends  at  home,  and  when  it  was 
over  to  convey  by  letter  the  sad  intelligence.  Let  me  rise  ever  so 
early,  she  had  already  preceded  me  at  work,  and  during  the  many 
long  hours  of  the  day,  she  never  seemed  to  weary  or  flag ;  in  the 
evening,  when  all  in  her  own  hospital  had  been  fully  cared  for, 
she  would  go  about  the  town  with  delicacies  to  administer  to 
officers  who  were  so  situated  they  could  not  procure  them.  At 
night  she  sought  a  garret  (and  it  was  literally  one)  for  her  rest. 


286 

"  One  can  but  feebly  portray  the  ministrations  of  such  a  person. 
She  belonged  to  no  association — had  no  compensation.  She  com 
manded  respect,  for  she  was  lady-like  and  well  educated ;  so  quiet 
and  undemonstrative,  that  her  presence  was  hardly  noticed,  except 
by  the  smiling  faces  of  the  wounded  as  she  passed.  While  she 
supervised  the  cooking  of  the  meats  and  soups  and  coffee,  all  nice 
things  were  made  and  distributed  by  herself.  How  the  men 
watched  for  the  dessert  of  farina  and  condensed  milk,  and  those 
more  severely  wounded  for  the  draughts  of  milk  punch ! 

"  Often  would  she  make  visits  to  the  offices  of  the  Sanitary  and 
Christian  Commissions,  and  when  delicacies  arrived,  her  men 
were  among  the  first  to  taste  them.  Oranges,  lemons,  pickles,  soft 
bread  and  butter,  and  even  apple-sauce,  were  one  or  the  other  daily 
distributed.  Such  unwearied  attention  is  the  more  appreciated, 
when  one  remembers  the  number  of  females  who  subsequently 
arrived,  and  the  desultory  and  fitful  labor  performed.  Passing 
from  one  hospital  to  another,  and  bestowing  general  sympathy, 
with  small  works,  is  not  what  wounded  men  want.  It  was  very 
soon  perceptible  how  the  men  in  that  hospital  appreciated  the 
solid  worth  of  the  one  and  the  tinsel  of  the  other. 

"  This  imperfect  recognition  is  but  a  slight  testimonial  to  the 
lady-like  deportment  and  the  untiring  labors  in  beha  f  of  sick 
and  wounded  soldiers  of  Miss  Hancock." 


MRS     MAK\     M 


HUSBAND 


MRS     MARY    MORRIS    HUSBAND. 


HERE  are  some  noble  souls  whose  devotion  to  duty,  to 
the  welfare  of  the  suffering  and  sorrowing,  and  to  the 
work  which  God  has  set  before  them,  is  so  complete 
that  it  leaves  them  no  time  to  think  of  themselves,  and 
no  consciousness  that  what  they  have  done  or  are  doing,  is  in  any 
way  remarkable.  To  them  it  seems  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world  to  undergo  severe  hardships  and  privations,  to  suffer  the 
want  of  all  things,  to  peril  health  and  even  life  itself,  to  endure 
the  most  intense  fatigue  and  loss  of  rest,  if  by  so  doing  they  may 
relieve  another's  pain  or  soothe  the  burdened  and  aching  heart; 
and  with  the  utmost  ingenuousness,  they  will  avow  that  they  have 
done  nothing  worthy  of  mention;  that  it  is  the  poor  soldier  who 
has  been  the  sufferer,  and  has  made  the  only  sacrifices  worthy  of 
the  name. 

The  worthy  and  excellent  lady  who  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
is  one  of  the  representative  women  of  this  class.  Few,  if  any, 
have  passed  through  more  positive  hardships  to  serve  the  soldiers 
than  she;  but  few  have  as  little  consciousness  of  them. 

Mrs.  Mary  Morris  Husband,  is  a  granddaughter  of  Robert 
Morris,  the  great  financier  of  our  Revolutionary  War,  to  whose 
abilities  and  patriotism  it  was  owing  that  we  had  a  republic  at 
all.  She  is,  in  her  earnest  patriotism,  well  worthy  of  her  ancestry. 
Her  husband,  a  well-known  and  highly  respectable  member  of 
the  Philadelphia  bar,  her  two  sons  and  herself  constituted  her 
household  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  and  her  quiet  home 

287 


288 

in  the  Quaker  City,  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  of  the  many  de 
lightful  homes  in  that  city.  The  patriotic  instincts  were  strong 
in  the  family ;  the  two  sons  enlisted  in  the  army  at  the  very  be 
ginning  of  the  conflict,  one  of  them  leaving  his  medical  studies  to 
do  so ;  and  the  mother,  as  soon  as  there  was  any  hospital  work  to 
do  was  fully  prepared  to  take  her  part  in  it.  She  had  been  in 
poor  health  for  some  years,  but  in  her  anxiety  to  render  aid 
to  the  suffering,  her  own  ailings  were  forgotten.  She  was  an 
admirable  nurse  and  a  skilful  housewife  and  cook,  and  her  first 
efforts  for  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  Philadelphia,  were 
directed  to  the  preparation  of  suitable  and  palatable  food  for 
them,  and  the  rendering  of  those  attentions  which  should  relieve 
the  irksomeness  and  discomforts  of  sickness  in  a  hospital.  The 
hospital  on  Twenty-second  and  Wood  streets,  Philadelphia,  was 
the  principal  scene  of  these  labors. 

But  the  time  had  come  for  other  and  more  engrossing  labors 
for  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  she  wTas  to  be  inducted  into  them 
by  the  avenue  of  personal  anxiety  for  one  of  her  sons.  In  that 
fearful  "  change  of  base "  which  resulted  in  the  seven  days'  battle 
on  the  peninsula,  when  from  the  combined  influence  of  marsh 
malaria,  want  of  food,  overmarching,  the  heat  and  fatigue  of 
constant  fighting,  and  the  depression  of  spirits  incident  to  the  un 
expected  retreat,  more  of  our  men  fell  down  with  mortal  sickness 
than  were  slain  or  wounded  in  the  battles,  one  of  Mrs.  Husband's 
sons  was  among  the  sufferers  from  disease,  and  word  was  sent  to 
her  that  he  was  at  the  point  of  death.  She  hastened  to  nurse 
him,  and  after  a  great  struggle  and  frequent  relapses,  he  rallied 
and  began  to  recover.  Meantime  she  had  not  been  so  wholly 
engrossed  with  her  care  for  him  as  to  be  neglectful  of  the  hundreds 
and  thousands  around,  who,  like  him,  were  suffering  from  the 
deadly  influences  of  that  pestilential  climate  and  soil,  or  of  the 
wounded  who  were  wearing  out  their  lives  in  agony,  with  but 
scant  attention  or  care ;  and  every  moment  that  could  be  spared 
from  her  sick  boy,  was  given  to  the  other  sufferers  around  her. 


MTIS.  MARY    MORRIS    HUSBAND.  291 

calico  a  figure  of  a  bottle  cut  out  of  red  flannel,  and  the  bottle- 
flag  flew  to  the  wind  at  all  times,  indicative  of  the  medicines  which 
were  dispensed  from  the  tent  below.  We  have  endeavored  to  give 
a  view  of  this  tent,  from  which  came  daily  such  quantities  of  deli 
cacies,  such  excellent  milk-punch  to  nourish  and  support  the 
patients  whose  condition  was  most  critical,  such  finely  flavored 
flaxseed  tea  for  the  army  of  patients  suifering  from  pulmonic  dis 
eases  ("  her  flaxseed  tea/7  says  one  of  her  boys,  "  was  never  insipid"), 
lemonades  for  the  feverish,  and  something  for  every  needy  patient. 
See  her  as  she  comes  out  of  her  tent  for  her  round  of  hospital 
duties,  a  substantial  comely  figure,  with  a  most  benevolent  and 
motherly  face,  her  hands  filled  with  the  good  things  she  is  bearing 
to  some  of  the  sufferers  in  the  hospital ;  she  has  discarded  hoops, 
believing  with  Florence  Nightingale,  that  they  are  utterly  incom 
patible  with  the  duties  of  the  hospital ;  she  has  a  stout  serviceable 
apron  nearly  covering  her  dress,  and  that  apron  is  a  miracle  of 
pockets ;  pockets  before,  behind,  and  on  each  side ;  deep,  wide 
pockets,  all  stored  full  of  something  which  will  benefit  or  amuse 
her  "  boys ;"  an  apple,  an  orange,  an  interesting  book,  a  set  of 
chess-men,  checkers,  dominoes,  or  puzzles,  newspapers,  magazines, 
everything  desired,  comes  out  of  those  capacious  pockets.  As 
she  enters  a  ward,  the  whisper  passes  from  one  cot  to  another, 
that  "mother"  is  coming,  and  faces,  weary  with  pain,  brighten  at 
her  approach,  and  sad  hearts  grow  glad  as  she  gives  a  cheerful 
smile  to  one,  says  a  kind  word  to  another,  administers  a  glass  of 
her  punch  or  lemonade  to  a  third,  hands  out  an  apple  or  an 
orange  to  a  fourth,  or  a  book  or  game  to  a  fifth,  and  relieves  the 
hospital  of  the  gloom  which  seemed  brooding  over  it.  But  not  in 
these  ways  alone  does  she  bring  comfort  and  happiness  to  these 
poor  wounded  and  fever-stricken  men.  She  encourages  them  to 
confide  to  her  their  sorrows  and  troubles,  and  the  heart  that,  like 
the  caged  bird,  has  been  bruising  itself  against  the  bars  of  its  cage, 
from  grief  for  the  suffering  or  sorrow  of  the  loved  ones  at  home 
or  oftener  still,  the  soul  that  finds  itself  on  the  confines  of  an  un- 


292  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

known  hereafter,  and  is  filled  with  distress  at  the  thought  of  the 
world  to  come,  pours  into  her  attentive  ear,  the  story  of  its  sor 
rows,  and  finds  in  her  a  wise  and  kind  counsellor  and  friend,  and 
learns  from  her  gentle  teachings  to  trust  and  hope. 

Hers  was  a  truly  heroic  spirit.  Darkness,  storm,  or  contagion, 
had  no  terrors  for  her,  when  there  was  suffering  to  be  alleviated, 
or  anguish  to  be  soothed.  Amid  the  raging  storms  of  the  severe 
winter  of  1862-3,  she  often  left  her  tent  two  or  three  times  in  the 
night  and  went  round  to  the  beds  of  those  who  were  apparently 
near  death,  from  the  fear  that  the  nurses  might  neglect  something 
which  needed  to  be  done  for  tnem.  When  diphtheria  raged  in 
the  hospital,  and  the  nurses  fearing  its  contagious  character,  fled 
from  the  bed-sides  of  those  suffering  from  it,  Mrs.  Husband 
devoted  herself  to  them  night  and  day,  fearless  of  the  exposure, 
and  where  they  died  of  the  terrible  disease  received  and  forwarded 
to  their  friends  the  messages  of  the  dying. 

It  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  when  the  time  came  for  her  to 
leave  this  hospital,  where  she  had  manifested  such  faithful  and 
self-sacrificing  care  and  tenderness  for  those  whom  she  knew  only 
as  the  defenders  of  her  country,  those  whom  she  left,  albeit  un 
used  to  the  melting  mood,  should  have  wept  at  losing  such  a 
friend.  "  There  were  no  dry  eyes  in  that  hospital,"  says  one 
who  was  himself  one  of  its  inmates;  "all,  from  the  strong  man 
ready  again  to  enter  the  ranks  to  the  poor  wreck  of  humanity 
lying  on  his  death-bed  gave  evidence  of  their  love  for  her,  and 
sorrow  at  her  departure  in  copious  tears.  On  her  way  home  she 
stopped  for  an  hour  or  two  at  camps  A  and  B  in  Frederick, 
Maryland,  where  a  considerable  number  of  the  convalescents 
from  Antietam  had  been  sent,  and  these  on  discovering  her,  sur 
rounded  her  ambulance  and  greeted  her  most  heartily,  seeming 
almost  wild  with  joy  at  seeing  their  kind  friend  once  more. 
After  a  brief  stay  at  Philadelphia,  during  which  she  visited  the 
hospitals  almost  constantly,  she  hastened  again  to  the  front,  and 
at  Falmouth  early  in  1863,  after  that  fearful  and  disastrous 


MRS.  MARY    MORRIS    HUSBAND.  293 

battle  of  Fredericksburg  she  found  ample  employment  for  her 
active  and  energetic  nature.  As  matron  of  Humphreys'  Division 
Hospital  (Fifth  Corps)  she  was  constantly  engaged  in  ministering 
to  the  comfort  of  the  wounded,  and  her  solicitude  for  the  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  the  men  did  not  end  with  their  discharge  from 
the  hospital.  The  informalities  or  blunders  by  which  they  too 
often  lost  their  pay  and  were  sometimes  set  down  as  deserters 
attracted  her  attention,  and  so  far  as  possible  she  always  procured 
the  correction  of  those  errors.  Early  in  April,  1863,  she  made  a 
flying  visit  to  Philadelphia,  and  thus  details  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend,  at  the  time  the  kind  and  amount  of  labor  which  almost 
always  filled  up  every  hour  of  those  journeys.  "Left  Monday 
evening  for  home,  took  two  discharged  soldiers  with  me ;  heard 
that  I  could  not  get  a  pass  to  return ;  so  instead  of  going  directly 
through,  stayed  in  Washington  twenty-four  hours,  and  fought  a 
battle  for  a  pass.  I  came  off  conqueror  of  course,  but  not  until 
wearied  almost  to  death — my  boys  in  the  meantime  had  gotten 
their  pay — so  I  took  them  from  the  Commission  Lodge  (where  I 
had  taken  them  on  arriving)  to  the  cars,  and  off  for  Baltimore. 
There  I  placed  them  in  the  care  of  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Relief  Associations,  and  arrived  home  at  1.30  A.  M.  I  carried 
money  home  for  some  of  the  boys,  and  had  business  of  my  own 
to  attend  to,  keeping  me  constantly  going  on  Wednesday  and 
Thursday;  left  at  midnight  (Thursday  night)  for  Washington, 
took  the  morning  boat  and  arrived  here  this  afternoon."  This 
record  of  five  days  of  severe  labor  such  as  few  men  could  have 
gone  through  without  utter  prostration,  is  narrated  in  her  letter 
to  her  friend  evidently  without  a  thought  that  there  was  any 
thing  extraordinary  in  it;  yet  it  was  in  a  constant  succession  of 
labors  as  wearing  as  this  that  she  lived  for  full  three  years  of  her 
army  life. 

Immediately  after  the  battles  of  Chancellorsville  she  went  to 
United  States  Ford,  but  was  not  allowed  to  cross,  and  joined  two 
Maine  ladies  at  the  hospital  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahan- 


294  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

nock,  where  they  dressed  wounds  until  dark,  slept  in  an  ambu 
lance,  and  early  in  the  morning  went  to  work  again,  but  were 
soon  warned  to  leave,  as  it  was  supposed  that  the  house  used  as  a 
hospital  would  be  shelled.  They  left,  and  about  half  a  mile  far 
ther  on  found  the  hospital  of  the  Third  and  Eleventh  Corps. 
Here  the  surgeon  in  charge  urged  Mrs.  Husband  to  remain  and 
assist  him,  promising  her  transportation.  She  accordingly  left  her 
ambulance  and  dressed  wounds  until  midnight.  By  this  time 
the  army  was  in  full  retreat  and  passing  the  hospital.  The  sur 
geon  forgot  his  promise,  and  taking  care  of  himself,  left  her  to  get 
away  as  best  she  could.  It  was  pitch  dark  and  the  rain  pouring 
in  torrents.  She  was  finally  offered  a  part  of  the  front  seat  of  an 
army  (medicine)  wagon,  and  after  riding  two  or  three  miles  on 
the  horrible  roads  the  tongue  of  the  wagon  broke,  and  she  was 
compelled  to  sit  in  the  drenching  rain  for  two  or  three  hours  till 
the  guide  could  bring  up  an  ambulance,  in  which  she  reached 
Falmouth  the  next  day. 

The  hospital  of  which  she  was  lady  matron  was  broken  up  at 
the  time  of  this  battle,  but  she  was  immediately  installed  in  the 
same  position  in  the  hospital  of  the  Third  Division  of  the  Third 
Corps,  then  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  Chancellorsville 
wounded.  Here  she  remained  until  compelled  to  move  North 
with  the  army  by  Lee's  raid  into  Pennsylvania  in  June  and 
July,  1863. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  the  day  of  the  last  and  fiercest  of  the 
Gettysburg  battles,  Mrs.  Husband,  who  had  been,  from  inability 
to  get  permission  to  go  to  the  front,  passing  a  few  anxious  days 
at  Philadelphia,  started  for  Gettysburg,  determined  to  go  to  the 
aid  and  relief  of  the  soldier  boys,  who,  she  well  knew,  needed 
her  services.  She  reached  the  battle-field  on  the  morning  of  the 
4th  by  way  of  Westminster,  in  General  Meade's  mail-wagoii. 
She  made  her  way  at  first  to  the  hospital  of  the  Third  Corps,  and 
labored  there  till  that  as  well  as  the  other  field  hospitals  were 
broken  up,  when  she  devoted  herself  to  the  wounded  in  Camp 


MRS.  MARY    MORRIS    HUSBAND.  295 

Letterman.  Here  she  was  attacked  with  miasmatic  fever,  but 
struggled  against  it  with  all  the  energy  of  her  nature,  remaining 
for  three  weeks  ill  in  her  tent.  She  was  at  length  carried  home, 
but  as  soon  as  she  was  convalescent,  went  to  Camp  Parole  at 
Annapolis,  as  agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  to  fill  the  place 
of  Miss  Clara  Davis,  (now  Mrs.  Edward  Abbott),  who  was  pros 
trated  by  severe  illness  induced  by  her  severe  and  continued 
labors. 

In  December,  1863,  she  accepted  the  position  of  matron  to  her 
old  hospital,  (Third  Division  of  the  Third  Corps),  then  located 
at  Brandy  Station,  where  she  remained  till  General  Grant's  order 
issued  on  the  loth  of  April  caused  the  removal  of  all  civilians 
from  the  army. 

A  month  had  not  elapsed,  before  the  terrible  slaughter  of  the 
"Wilderness"  and  " Spottsylvania,"  had  made  that  part  of  Vir 
ginia  a  field  of  blood,  and  Mrs.  Husband  hastened  to  Fredericks- 
burg  where  no  official  now  barred  her  progress  with  his  "red 
tape"  prohibitions ;  here  she  remained  till  the  first  of  June,  toiling 
incessantly,  and  then  moving  on  to  Port  Eoyal  and  White  House, 
where  the  same  sad  scenes  were  repeated,  and  where,  amid  so 
much  suffering  and  horror,  it  was  difficult  to  banish  the  feeling 
of  depression.  At  White  House,  she  took  charge  of  the  low  diet 
kitchen  for  the  whole  Sixth  Corps,  to  which  her  division  had 
been  transferred.  The  number  of  wounded  was  very  large,  this 
corps  having  suffered  severely  in  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  and 
her  duties  were  arduous,  but  she  made  no  complaint,  her  heart 
being  at  rest,  if  she  could  only  do  something  for  her  brave  soldier 
boy's. 

When  the  base  was  transferred  to  City  Point,  she  made  her 
way  to  the  Third  Division,  Sixth  Corps'  Hospital  at  the  front, 
where  she  remained  until  the  Sixth  Corps  were  ordered  to  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  when  she  took  charge  of  the  low  diet  kitchen 
of  the  Second  Corps'  Hospital  at  City  Point,  and  remained  there 
until  the  end.  Her  labors  among  the  men  in  this  hospital  were 


296 

constant  and  severe,  but  she  won  all  hearts  by  her  tenderness, 
cheerfulness,  and  thoughtful  consideration  of  the  needs  of  every 
particular  case.  Each  one  of  those  under  her  care  felt  that  she 
was  specially  his  friend,  and  interesting  and  sometimes  amusing 
were  the  confidences  imparted  to  her,  by  the  poor  fellows.  The 
one  bright  event  of  the  day  to  all  was  the  visit  of  "  Mother"  Hus 
band  to  their  ward.  The  apron,  with  its  huge  pockets,  always 
bore  some  welcome  gift  for  each,  and  however  trifling  it  might  be 
in  itself,  it  was  precious  as  coming  from  her  hands.  Her  friends 
in  Philadelphia,  by  their  constant  supplies,  enabled  her  to  dis 
pense  many  articles  of  comfort  and  luxury  to  the  sick  and 
wounded,  which  could  not  otherwise  have  been  furnished. 

On  the  6th  of  May,  1865,  Mrs.  Husband  was  gratified  by 
the  sight  of  our  gallant  army  marching  through  Eichmond.  As 
they  passed,  in  long  array,  they  recognized  her,  and  from  hun 
dreds  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Second,  Third,  and  Sixth  Corps,  rang 
out  the  loud  and  hearty  "  Hurrah  for  Mother  Husband !"  while 
their  looks  expressed  their  gratitude  to  one  who  had  been  their 
firm  and  faithful  friend  in  the  hour  of  suffering  and  danger. 

Mrs.  Husband  felt  that  she  must  do  something  more  for  her 
"  boys"  before  they  separated  and  returned  to  their  distant  homes ; 
she  therefore  left  Richmond  immediately,  and  traveling  with  her 
accustomed  celerity,  soon  reached  Philadelphia,  and  gathering  up 
from  her  liberal  friends  and  her  own  moderate  means,  a  sufficient 
sum  to  procure  the  necessary  stores,  she  returned  with  an  ample 
supply,  met  the  soldiers  of  the  corps  to  which  she  had  been 
attached  at  Bailey's  Cross  Roads,  and  there  spent  six  or  seven 
days  in  distributing  to  them  the  clothing  and  comforts  which  they 
needed.  Her  last  opportunity  of  seeing  them  was  a  few  days 
later  at  the  grand  review  in  Washington. 

There  was  one  class  of  services  which  Mrs.  Husband  rendered 
to  the  soldiers,  which  we  have  not  mentioned,  and  in  which  wTe 
believe  she  had  no  competitor.  In  the  autumn  of  1863,  her 
attention  was  called  to  the  injustice  of  the  finding  and  sentence  of 


MRS.  MARY    MORRIS    HUSBAXD.  297 

a  court  martial,  which  had  tried  a  private  soldier  for  some  alleged 
offence  and  sentenced  him  to  be  shot.  She  investigated  the  case 
and,  with  some  difficulty,  succeeded  in  procuring  his  pardon  from 
the  President. 

She  began  from  this  time  to  take  an  interest  in  these  cases  of 
trial  by  summary  court  martial,  and  having  a  turn  for  legal  inves 
tigation,  to  which  her  early  training  and  her  husband's  profession 
had  inclined  her,  and  a  clear  judicial  mind,  she  made  each  one 
her  study,  and  though  she  found  that  there  were  some  cases  in 
which  summary  punishment  was  merited,  yet  the  majority  were 
deserving  of  the  interposition  of  executive  clemency,  and  she 
became  their  advocate  with  the  patient  and  kind-hearted  Lincoln. 
In  scores  of  instances  she  secured,  not  without  much  difficulty, 
and  some  abuse  from  officials  "  dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority," 
who  disliked  her  keen  and  thorough  investigation  of  their  pro 
ceedings,  the  pardon  or  the  commutation  of  punishment  of  those 
sentenced  to  death.  Rarely,  if  ever,  did  the  President  turn  a  deaf 
ear  to  her  pleadings ;  for  he  knew  that  they  were  prompted  by 
no  sinister  motive,  or  simple  humane  impulse.  Every  case  which 
she  presented  had  been  thoroughly  and  carefully  examined,  and 
her  knowledge  of  it  was  so  complete,  that  he  felt  he  might  safely 
trust  her. 

Through  all  these  multifarious  labors  and  toils,  Mrs.  Husband 
has  received  no  compensation  from  the  Government  or  the  Sani 
tary  Commission.  She  entered  the  service  as  a  volunteer,  and 
her  necessities  have  been  met  from  her  own  means,  and  she  has 
also  given  freely  to  the  soldiers  and  to  their  families  from  her  not 
over-full  purse.  Her  reward  is  in  the  sublime  consciousness  of 
having  been  able  to  accomplish  an  amount  of  good  which  few 
could  equal.  All  over  the  land,  in  hundreds  of  homes,  in  thou 
sands  of  hearts,  her  name  is  a  household  word,  and  as  the  mother 
looks  upon  her  son,  the  wife  upon  her  husband,  the  child  upon 
its  father,  blessings  are  breathed  forth  upon  her  through  whose 
skilful  care  and  watchful  nursing  these  loved  ones  are  spared  to 


298 

be  a  joy  and  support.  The  contributions  and  mementoes  pre 
sented  by  her  soldier  boys  form  a  large  and  very  interesting 
museum  in  her  home.  There  are  rings  almost  numberless,  carved 
from  animal  bones,  shells,  stone,  vulcanite,  etc.,  miniature  tablets, 
books,  harps,  etc.,  inlaid  from  trees  or  houses  of  historic  memory, 
niinie  bullets,  which  have  traversed  bone  and  flesh  of  patient  suf 
ferers,  and  shot  and  shell  which  have  done  their  part  in  destroy 
ing  the  fortresses  of  the  rebellion.  Each  memento  has  its  history, 
and  all  are  precious  in  the  eyes  of  the  recipient,  as  a  token  of  the 
love  of  those  whom  she  has  watched  and  nursed. 

Her  home  is  the  Mecca  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  if  any  of  them  are  sick  or  in  distress  in  Philadel 
phia,  Mother  Husband  hastens  at  once  to  their  relief.  Late  may 
she  return  to  the  skies;  and  when  at  last  in  the  glory  of  a  ripe 
and  beautiful  old  age,  she  lies  down  to  rest,  a  grateful  people  shall 
inscribe  on  her  monument,  "  Here  lies  all  that  was  mortal  of  one 
whom  all  delighted  to  honor." 


HOSPITAL    TRANSPORT    SERVICE. 


MONO  the  deeds  which  entitle  the  United  States  Sani 
tary  Commission  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  the  Amer 
ican  people,  was  the  organization  and  maintenance  of 
the  "  Hospital  Transport  Service"  in  the  Spring  and 
Summer  of  1862.  '"When  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  removed 
from  the  high  lands  about  Washington,  to  the  low  marshy  and 
miasmatic  region  of  the  Peninsula,  it  required  but  little  discern 
ment  to  predict  that  extensive  sickness  would  prevail  among  the 
troops;  this,  and  the  certainty  of  sanguinary  battles  soon  to  ensue, 
which  would  multiply  the  wounded  beyond  all  previous  prece 
dents,  were  felt,  by  the  officers  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  as 
affording  sufficient  justification,  if  any  were  needed  for  making  an 
effort  to  supplement  the  provision  of  the  Medical  Bureau,  which 
could  not  fail  to  be  inadequate  for  the  coming  emergency.  Ac 
cordingly  early  in  April,  1862,  Mr.  F.  L.  Olmstead,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Commission,  having  previously  secured  the  sanction  of 
the  Medical  Bureau,  made  application  to  the  Quartermaster-Gen 
eral  to  allow  the  Commission  to  take  in  hand  some  of  the  trans 
port  steamboats  of  his  department,  of  which  a  large  number  were 
at  that  time  lying  idle,  to  fit  them  up  and  furnish  them  in  all 
respects  suitable  for  the  reception  and  care  of  sick  and  wounded 
men,  providing  surgeons  and  other  necessary  attendance  without 
cost  to  Government.  After  tedious  delays  and  disappointments 
of  various  kinds — one  fine  large  boat  having  been  assigned,  par 
tially  furnished  by  the  Commission,  and  then  withdrawn — an 

299 


300  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

order  was  at  length  received,  authorizing  the  Commission  to  take 
possession  of  any  of  the  Government  transports,  not  in  actual 
use,  which  might  at  that  time  be  lying  at  Alexandria.  Under 
this  authorization  the  Daniel  Webster  was  assigned  to  the  Com 
mission  on  the  25th  of  April,  and  having  been  fitted  up,  the 
stores  shipped,  and  the  hospital  corps  for  it  assembled,  it  reached 
York  River  on  the  30th  of  April. 

Other  boats  were  subsequently,  (several  of  them,  very  soon) 
assigned  to  the  Commission,  and  were  successively  fitted  up,  and 
after  receiving  their  freights  of  sick  and  wounded,  sent  to  Wash 
ington,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and  other  points  with  their 
precious  cargoes,  which  were  to  be  transferred  to  the  general  hos 
pitals.  Among  these  vessels  were  the  "Ocean  Queen,"  the  "  S. 
R.  Spaulding,"  the  "Elm  City,"  the  "Daniel  Webster,"  No.  2, 
the  "Knickerbocker,"  the  clipper  ships  Euterpe  and  St.  Mark, 
and  the  Commission  chartered  the  "Wilson  Small,"  and  the 
"Elizabeth,"  two  small  steamers,  as  tender  and  supply  boats. 
The  Government  were  vacillating  in  their  management  in 
regard  to  these  vessels,  often  taking  them  from  the  Commis 
sion  just  when  partially  or  wholly  fitted  up,  on  the  plea  of 
requiring  them  for  some  purpose  and  assigning  another  vessel, 
often  poorly  adapted  to  their  service,  on  board  of  which  the  labor 
of  fitting  and  supplying  must  be  again  undergone,  when  that  too 
would  be  withdrawn. 

To  each  of  these  hospital  transports  several  ladies  were  assigned 
by  the  Commission  to  take  charge  of  the  diet  of  the  patients, 
assist  in  dressing  their  woilnds,  and  generally  to  care  for  their 
comfort  and  welfare.  Mr.  Olmstead,  and  Mr.  Knapp,  the  Assist 
ant  Secretary,  had  also  in  their  company,  or  as  they  pleasantly 
called  them,  members  of  their  staff,  four  ladies,  who  remained  in 
the  service,  not  leaving  the  vicinity  of  the  Peninsula,  until  the 
transfer  of  the  troops  to  Acquia  Creek  and  Alexandria  late  in 
August.  These  ladies  remained  for  the  most  part  on  board  the 
Daniel  Webster,  or  the  Wilson  Small,  or  wherever  the  headquar- 


THE    HOSPITAL    TRANSPORT    SERVICE.  301 

ters  of  the  Commission  in  the  field  might  be.  Their  duties 
consisted  in  nursing,  preparing  food  for  the  sick  and  wounded, 
dressing  wounds,  in  connexion  with  the  surgeons  and  medical 
students,  and  in  general,  making  themselves  useful  to  the  great 
numbers  of  wounded  and  sick  who  were  placed  temporarily 
under  their  charge.  Often  they  provided  them  with  clean  beds 
and  hospital  clothing,  and  suitable  food  in  preparation  for  their 
voyage  to  Washington,  Philadelphia,  or  New  York.  These  four 
ladies  were  Miss  Katherine  P.  Wormeley,  of  Newport,  R.  I., 
Mrs.  William  P.  Griffin,  of  New  York,  one  of  the  executive 
board  of  the  Woman's  Central  Association  of  Relief,  Mrs.  Eliza 
W.  Howland,  wife  of  Colonel  (afterward  General)  Joseph  How- 
land,  and  her  sister,  Miss  Georgiana  Woolsey,  both  of  New  York. 
Among  those  who  were  in  charge  of  the  Hospital  Transports 
for  one  or  more  of  their  trips  to  the  cities  we  have  named,  and 
by  their  tenderness  and  gentleness  comforted  and  cheered  the 
poor  sufferers,  and  often  by  their  skilful  nursing  rescued  them 
from  the  jaws  of  death,  were  Mrs.  George  T.  Strong,  the  wife  of 
the  Treasurer  of  the  Commission,  who  made  four  or  five  trips ; 
Miss  Harriet  Douglas  Whetten,  who  served  throughout  the 
Peninsular  Campaign  as  head  of  the  Women's  Department  on 
the  S.  R.  Spaulding;  Mrs.  Laura  Trotter,  (now  Mrs.  Charles 
Parker)  of  Boston,  who  occupied  a  similar  position  on  the  Daniel 
Webster ;  Mrs.  Bailey,  at  the  head  of  the  Women's  Department 
on  the  Elm  City ;  Mrs.  Charlotte  Bradford,  a  Massachusetts  lady 
who  made  several  trips  on  the  Elm  City  and  Knickerbocker ; 
Miss  Amy  M.  Bradley,  whose  faithful  services  are  elsewhere 
recorded ;  Mrs.  Annie  Etheridge,  of  the  Fifth  Michigan,  Miss 
Bradley's  faithful  and  zealous  co-worker ;  Miss  Helen  L.  Gilson, 
who  here  as  well  as  everywhere  else  proved  herself  one  of  the 
most  eminently  useful  women  in  the  service ;  Miss  M.  Gardiner, 
who  was  on  several  of  the  steamers;  Mrs.  Balustier,  of  New 
York,  one  of  the  most  faithful  and  self-sacrificing  of  the  ladies 
of  the  Hospital  Transport  service ;  Mrs.  Mary  Morris  Husband, 


302 

of  Philadelphia,  who  made  four  voyages,  and  whose  valuable 
services  are  elsewhere  recited ;  Mrs.  Bellows,  the  wife  of  the 
President  of  the  Commission,  who  made  one  voyage ;  Mrs.  Mer- 
ritt,  and  several  other  ladies. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  ladies  who  remained  permanently  at 
the  Commission's  headquarters  in  the  Peninsula.  Their  position 
and  duties  were  in  many  respects  more  trying  and  arduous  than 
those  who  accompanied  the  sick  and  wounded  to  the  hospitals  of 
the  cities.  The  Daniel  Webster,  which,  as  we  have  said,  reached 
York  River  April  30,  discharged  her  stores  except  what  would 
be  needed  for  her  trip  to  New  York,  and  having  placed  them  in 
a  store-house  on  shore,  began  to  supply  the  sick  in  camp  and  hos 
pital,  and  to  receive  such  patients  on  board  as  it  was  deemed 
expedient  to  send  to  New  York.  These  were  washed,  their 
clothing  changed,  they  were  fed  and  put  in  good  clean  beds,  and 
presently  sent  off  to  their  destination.  The  staff  then  commenced 
putting  the  Ocean  Queen,  which  had  just  been  sent  to  them,  into 
a  similar  condition  of  fitness  for  receiving  the  sick  and  wounded. 
She  had  not,  on  her  arrival,  a  single  bunk  or  any  stores  on  board; 
and  before  any  preparation  could  be  made,  the  regimental  and 
brigade  surgeons  on  shore  (who  never  would  wait)  began  to  send 
their  sick  and  wounded  on  board ;  remonstrance  was  useless,  and 
the  whole  party  worked  with  all  their  might  to  make  what  pro 
vision  was  possible.  One  of  the  party  went  on  shore,  found  a 
rebel  cow  at  pasture,  shot  her,  skinned  her  with  his  pocket-knife, 
and  brought  off  the  beef.  A  barrel  of  Indian  meal,  forgotten  in 

O  /  o 

discharging  the  freight  of  the  vessel,  was  discovered  in  the  hold 
and  made  into  gruel  almost  by  magic,  and  cups  of  it  were  ladled 
out  to  the  poor  fellows  as  they  tottered  in,  with  their  faces  flushed 
with  typhoid  fever;  by  dint  of  constant  hard  work,  bunks  were 
got  up,  stores  brought  on  board,  two  draught  oxen  left  behind 
by  Franklin's  Division  found  and  slaughtered,  and  nine  hundred 
patients  having  been  taken  on  board,  the  vessel's  anchors  were 
weighed  and  she  went  out  to  sea.  This  was  very  much  the  ex- 


THE    HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  303 

perience  of  the  party  during  their  stay  in  the  Peninsula.  Hard, 
constant,  and  hurrying  work  were  the  rule,  a  day  of  comparative  rest 
was  the  exception.  Dividing  themselves  into  small  parties  of  two 
or  three,  they  boarded  and  supplied  with  the  stores  of  the  Commis 
sion,  the  boats  which  the  Medical  officers  of  the  army  had  pressed 
into  the  service  filled  with  wounded  and  sent  without  comfort,  food 
or  attendance,  on  their  way  to  the  hospitals  in  the  vicinity  of 
Fortress  Monroe;  superintended  the  shipping  of  patients  on  the 
steamers  which  returned  from  the  North;  took  account  of  the 
stores  needed  by  these  boats  and  saw  that  they  were  sent  on 
board;  fitted  up  the  new  boats  furnished  to  the  Commission  by 
the  Quartermaster's  orders;  received,  sorted  and  distributed  the 
patients  brought  to  the  landing  011  freight-cars,  according  to 
orders;  fed,  cleansed,  and  gave  medical  aid  and  nursing  to  all  of 
them,  and  selected  nurses  for  those  to  be  sent  North;  and  when 
any  great  emergency  came  did  their  utmost  to  meet  it. 

The  amount  of  work  actually  performed  was  very  great;  but 
it  was  performed  in  such  a  cheerful  triumphant  spirit,  a  spirit 
that  rejoiced  so  heartily  in  doing  something  to  aid  the  nation's 
defenders,  in  sacrificing  everything  that  they  might  be  saved,  that 
it  was  robbed  of  half  its  irksomeness  and  gloom,  and  most  of  the 
zealous  workers  retained  their  health  and  vigor  even  in  the  mias 
matic  air  of  the  bay  and  its  estuaries.  Miss  Wormeley,  one  of 
the  transport  corps,  has  supplied,  partly  from  her  own  pen,  and 
partly  from  that  of  Miss  Georgiana  Woolsey,  one  of  her  co- 
workers,  some  vivid  pictures  of  their  daily  life,  which,  with  her 
permission,  we  here  reproduce  from  her  volume  on  the  "United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,"  published  in  1863. 

"The  last  hundred  patients  were  brought  on  board"  (imagine 
any  of  the  ships,  it  does  not  matter  which)  "late  last  night. 
Though  these  night-scenes  are  part  of  our  daily  living,  a  fresh 
eye  would  find  them  dramatic.  We  are  awakened  in  the  dead  of 
night  by  a  sharp  steam-whistle,  and  soon  after  feel  ourselves 
clawed  by  little  tugs  on  either  side  of  our  big  ship,  bringing  off 


304 

the  sick  and  wounded  from  the  shore.  And,  at  once,  the  process 
of  taking  on  hundreds  of  men — many  of  them  crazed  with  fever 
— begins.  There  is  the  bringing  of  the  stretchers  up  the  side- 
ladder  between  the  two  boats;  the  stopping  at  the  head  of  it, 
where  the  names  and  home  addresses  of  all  who  can  speak  arc; 
written  down,  and  their  knapsacks  and  little  treasures  numbered 
and  stacked;  then  the  placing  of  the  stretchers  on  the  platform; 
the  row  of  anxious  faces  above  and  below  deck;  the  lantern  held 
over  the  hold ;  the  word  given  to  '  Lower ;'  the  slow-moving  ropes 
and  pulleys;  the  arrival  at  the  bottom;  the  turning  down  of  the 
anxious  faces ;  the  lifting  out  of  the  sick  man,  and  the  lifting  him 
into  his  bed;  and  then  the  sudden  change  from  cold,  hunger  and 
friendlessness,  into  positive  comfort  and  satisfaction,  winding  up 
with  his  invariable  verdict,  if  he  can  speak, — 'This  is  just  like 
home  !' 

"We  have  put  'The  Elm  City7  in  order,  and  she  began  to  fill 
up  last  night.  I  wish  you  could  hear  the  men  after  they  are  put 
into  bed.  Those  who  can  speak,  speak  with  a  will;  the  others 
grunt,  or  murmur  their  satisfaction.  ( Well,  this  bed  is  most  too 
soft ;  I  don't  know  as  I  shall  sleep,  for  thinking  of  it.'  '  What 
have  you  got  there?'  'That  is  bread;  wait  till  I  put  butter  on 
it.'  'Butter,  on  soft  bread!'  he  slowly  ejaculates,  as  if  not  sure 
that  he  isn't  Aladdin  with  a  genie  at  work  upon  him.  Instances 
of  such  high  unselfishness  happen  daily,  that,  though  I  forget 
them  daily,  I  feel  myself  strengthened  in  my  trust  in  human 
nature,  without  making  any  reflections  about  it.  Last  night,  a 
man  comfortably  put  to  bed  in  a  middle  berth  (there  were  three 
tiers,  and  the  middle  one  incomparably  the  best)  seeing  me  point 
to  the  upper  berth  as  the  place  to  put  the  man  on  an  approaching 
stretcher,  cried  out :  '  Stop !  put  me  up  there.  Guess  I  can  stand 
h'isting  better'n  him.9  It  was  agony  to  both. 

"  I  have  a  long  history  to  tell  you,  one  of  these  days,  of  the 
gratefulness  of  the  men.  I  often  wish, — as  I  give  a  comfort  to 
some  poor  fellow,  and  see  the  sense  of  rest  it  gives  him,  and  hear 


THE    HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  305 

the  favorite  speech:  'O,  that's  good,  it's  just  as  if  mother  was 
here/ — that  the  man  or  woman  who  supplied  that  comfort  were 
by  to  see  how  blessed  it  is.  Believe  me,  you  may  all  give  and 
work  in  the  earnest  hope  that  yon  alleviate  suffering,  but  none  of 
you  realize  what  you  do;  perhaps  you  can't  conceive  of  it,  unless 
you  could  see  your  gifts  in  use.  *  *  *  * 

"  We  are  now  on  board  '  The  Knickerbocker/  unpacking  and 
arranging  stores,  and  getting  pantries  and  closets  in  order.  I  am 
writing  on  the  floor,  interrupted  constantly  to  join  in  a  laugh. 

Miss is  sorting  socks,  and  pulling  out  the  funny  little  balls 

of  yarn,  and  big  darning-needles  stuck  in  the  toes,  with  which 
she  is  making  a  fringe  across  my  back.  Do  spare  us  the  darning- 
needles!  Reflect  upon  us,  rushing  in  haste  to  the  linen  closet, 
and  plunging  our  hands  into  the  bale  of  stockings!  I  certainly 
will  make  a  collection  of  sanitary  clothing.  I  solemnly  aver  that 
yesterday  I  found  a  pair  of  drawers  made  for  a  case  of  amputation 
at  the  thigh.  And  the  slippers!  Only  fit  for  pontoon  bridges!" 

This  routine  of  fitting  up  the  ships  as  they  arrived,  and  of 
receiving  the  men  on  board  as  they  came  from  the  front,  was 
accompanied  by  constant  hard  work  in  meeting  requisitions  from 
regiments,  with  ceaseless  battlings  for  transportation  to  get  sup 
plies  to  the  front  for  camps  and  hospitals;  and  was  diversified  by 
short  excursions,  wrhich  we  will  call  "special  relief/'  such,  for 
instance,  as  the  following : — 

"At  midnight  two  steamers  came  alongside  'The  Elm  City/ 
each  with  a  hundred  sick,  bringing  word  that  'The  Daniel  Web 
ster  No.  2'  (a  sidcwheel  vessel,  not  a  Commission  boat)  was 
aground  at  a  little  distance,  with  two  hundred  more,  having  no 
one  in  charge  of  them,  and  nothing  to  eat.  Of  course  they  had 
to  be  attended  to.  So,  amidst  the  wildest  and  most  beautiful 
storm  of  thunder  and  lightning,  four  of  us  pulled  off  to  her  in  a 
little  boat,  with  tea,  bread,  brandy,  and  beef-essence.  (No  one 
cm  tell  how  it  tries  my  nerves  to  go  toppling  round  at  night  in 
little  I: oats,  and  clambering  up  ships'  sides  on  little  ladders).  We 

39 


306  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

fed  them, — the  usual  process.  Poor  fellows!  they  were  so  crazy! 
— And  then  'The  Wissahickon'  came  alongside  to  transfer  them 
to  '  The  Elm  City.7  Only  a  part  of  them  could  go  in  the  first 
load.  Dr.  Ware,  with  his  constant  thoughtfulness,  made  me  go 
in  her,  to  escape  returning  in  the  small  boat.  Just  as  we  pushed 
off,  the  steam  gave  out,  and  we  drifted  end  on  to  the  shore.  Then 
a  boat  had  to  put  off  from  '  The  Elm  City/  with  a  line  to  tow  us 
up.  All  this  time  the  thunder  was  incessant,  the  rain  falling  in 
torrents,  whilst  every  second  the  beautiful  crimson  lightning 
flashed  the  whole  scene  open  to  us.  Add  to  this,  that  there  were 
three  men  alarmingly  ill,  and  (thinking  to  be  but  a  minute  in 
reaching  the  other  ship)  I  had  not  even  a  drop  of  brandy  for 
them.  Do  you  wonder,  therefore,  that  I  forgot  your  letters?" 

Or,  again,  the  following: — 

"  Sixty  men  were  heard  of  as  lying  upon  the  railroad  without 
food,  and  no  one  to  look  after  them.  Some  of  us  got  at  once  into 
the  stern-wheeler  e  Wissahickon,7  which  is  the  Commission's  car 
riage,  and,  with  provisions,  basins,  towels,  soap,  blankets,  etc., 
went  up  to  the  railroad  bridge,  cooking  tea  and  spreading  bread 
and  butter  as  we  went.  A  tremendous  thunder-storm  came  up, 
in  the  midst  of  which  the  men  were  found,  put  on  freight-cars, 
and  pushed  to  the  landing; — fed,  washed,  and  taken  on  the  tug 
to  '  The  Elm  City.7  Dr.  Ware,  in  his  hard  working  on  shore, 
had  found  fifteen  other  sick  men  without  food  or  shelter, — there 
being  '  no  room7  in  the  tent-hospital.  He  had  studied  the  neigh 
borhood  extensively  for  shanties;  found  one,  and  put  his  men  in 
it  for  the  ni^ht.  In  the  morning  we  ran  up  on  the  tug,  cooking 
breakfast  for  them  as  we  ran,  scrambling  eggs  in  a  wash-basin 
over  a  spirit-lamp : — and  such  eggs !  nine  in  ten  addled !  It  must 
be  understood  that  wash-basins  in  the  rear  of  an  army  are  made 
of  tin." 

And  here  is  one  more  such  story :  "  We  were  called  to  go  on 
board  '  The  Wissahickon,7  from  thence  to  '  The  Sea-shore7  and  run 
down  in  the  latter  to  West  Point,  to  bring  off  twenty-five  men 


THE    HOSPITAL    TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  307 

said  to  be  lying  there  sick  and  destitute.  Two  doctors  went  with 
us.  After  hunting  an  hour  for  'The  Sea-shore'  in  vain,  and 
having  got  as  low  as  Cumberland,  we  decided  (we  being  Mrs. 
Howland  and  I,  for  the  doctors  were  new  and  docile,  and  glad  to 
leave  the  responsibility  upon  us  women)  to  push  on  in  the  tug, 
rather  than  leave  the  men  another  night  on  the  ground,  as  a 
heavy  storm  of  wind  and  rain  had  been  going  on  all  the  day.  The 
pilot  remonstrated,  but  the  captain  approved;  and,  if  the  firemen 
had  not  suddenly  let  out  the  fires,  and  detained  us  two  hours,  we 
might  have  got  our  men  on  board,  and  returned,  comfortably, 
soon  after  dark.  But  the  delay  lost  us  the  precious  daylight.  It 
was  night  before  the  last  man  was  got  011  board.  There  were 
fifty-six  of  them,  ten  very  sick  ones.  The  boat  had  a  little  shelter- 
cabin.  As  we  were  laying  mattresses  on  the  floor,  whilst  the 
doctors  were  finding  the  men,  the  captain  stopped  us,  refusing  to 
let  us  put  typhoid  fever  below  the  deck,  on  account  of  the  crew, 
he  said,  and  threatening  to  push  off,  at  once,  from  the  shore. 
Mrs.  Howland  and  I  looked  at  him !  I  did  the  terrible,  and  she 
the  pathetic, — and  he  abandoned  the  contest.  The  return  passage 
was  rather  an  anxious  one.  The  river  is  much  obstructed  with 
sunken  ships  and  trees;  the  night  was  dark,  and  we  had  to  feel 
our  way,  slackening  speed  every  ten  minutes.  If  we  had  been 
alone  it  wouldn't  have  mattered ;  but  to  have  fifty  men  unable  to 
move  upon  our  hands,  was  too  heavy  a  responsibility  not  to  make 
us  anxious.  The  captain  and  pilot  said  the  boat  was  leaking, 
and  remarked  awfully  that  ( the  water  was  six  fathoms  deep  about 
there;'  but  we  saw  their  motive  and  were  not  scared.  We  were 
safe  alongside  'The  Spaulding'  by  midnight;  but  Mr.  Olmstead's 
tone  of  voice,  as  he  said,  '  You  don't  know  how  glad  I  am  to  see 
you/  showed  how  much  he  had  been  worried.  And  yet  it  was 
the  best  thing  we  could  have  done,  for  three,  perhaps  five,  of  the 
men  would  have  been  dead  before  morning.  To-day  (Sunday) 
they  are  living  and  likely  to  live.  Is  this  Sunday  ?  What  days 


308 

our  Sundays  have  been !  I  think  of  you  all  at  rest,  and  the  sound 
of  church  bells  in  your  ears,  with  a  strange,  distant  feeling." 

This  was  the  general  state  of  things  at  the  time  when  the  battle 
of  Fair  Oaks  was  fought,  June  1,  1862.  All  the  vessels  of  the 
Commission  except  "The  Spaulding" — and  she  was  hourly  ex 
pected — were  on  the  spot,  and  ready.  "  The  Elm  City"  happened 
to  be  full  of  fever  cases.  A  vague  rumor  of  a  battle  prevailed, 
soon  made  certain  by  the  sound  of  the  cannonading;  and  she 
left  at  once  (4  A.  M.)  to  discharge  her  sick  at  Yorktown,  and 
performed  the  great  feat  of  getting  back  to  White  House,  cleaned, 
and  with  her  beds  made,  before  sunset  of  the  same  day.  By  that 
time  the  wounded  were  arriving.  The  boats  of  the  Commission 
filled  up  calmly.  The  young  men  had  a  system  by  which  they 
shipped  their  men ;  and  there  was  neither  -hurry  nor  confusion, 
as  the  vessels,  one  by  one, — "The  Elm  City/7  "The  Knicker 
bocker,"  "The  Daniel  Webster,"— filled  up  and  left  the  landing. 
After  them,  other  boats,  detailed  by  the  Government  for  hospital 
service,  came  up.  These  boats  wTere  not  under  the  control  of  the 
Commission.  There  was  no  one  specially  appointed  to  take  charge 
of  them;  no  one  to  receive  the  wounded  at  the  station;  no  one  to 
see  that  the  boats  were  supplied  with  proper  stores.  A  frightful 
scene  of  confusion  and  misery  ensued.  The  Commission  came 
forward  to  do  what  it  could;  but  it  had  no  power,  only  the  right 
of  charity.  It  could  not  control,  scarcely  check,  the  fearful  con 
fusion  that  prevailed,  as  train  after  train  came  in,  and  the  wounded 
were  brought  and  thrust  upon  the  various  boats.  But  it  did 
nobly  what  it  could.  Night  and  day  its  members  worked:  not, 
it  must  be  remembered,  in  its  own  well-organized  service,  but  in 
the  hard  duty  of  making  the  best  of  a  bad  case.  Not  the  smallest 
preparation  was  found,  on  at  least  three  of  the  boats,  for  the  com 
mon  food  of  the  men;  and,  as  for  sick-food,  stimulants,  drinks, 
there  was  nothing  of  the  kind  on  any  one  of  the  boats,  and  not  a 
pail  nor  a  cup  to  distribute  food,  had  there  been  any. 

No  one,  it  is  believed,  can  tell  the  story,  as  it  occurred,  of  the 


THE   HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  309 

next  three  days; — no  one  can  tell  distinctly  what  boats  they  were, 
on  which  they  lived  and  worked  through  those  days  and  nights. 
They  remember  scenes  and  sounds,  but  they  remember  nothing 
as  a  whole;  and,  to  this  day,  if  they  are  feverish  and  weary, 
comes  back  the  sight  of  men  in  every  condition  of  horror,  borne, 
shattered  and  shrieking,  by  thoughtless  hands,  who  banged  the 
stretchers  against  pillars  and  posts,  dumped  them  anywhere,  and 
walked  over  the  men  without  compassion.  Imagine  an  immense 
river-steamboat  filled  on  every  deck:  every  berth,  every  square 
inch  of  room,  covered  with  wounded  men, — even  the  stairs  and 
gangways  and  guards  filled  with  those  who  were  less  badly 
wounded;  and  then  imagine  fifty  well  men,  on  every  kind  of 
errand,  hurried  and  impatient,  rushing  to  and  fro,  every  touch 
bringing  agony  to  the  poor  fellows,  whilst  stretcher  after  stretcher 
comes  along,  hoping  to  find  an  empty  place ;  and  then  imagine 
what  it  was  for  these  people  of  the  Commission  to  keep  calm 
themselves,  and  make  sure  that  each  man,  on  such  a  boat  as  that, 
was  properly  refreshed  and  fed.  Sometimes  two  or  even  three 
such  boats  were  lying  side  by  side,  full  of  suffering  and  horrors. 

This  was  the  condition  of  things  with  the  subordinates.  With 
the  chiefs  it  was  aggravated  by  a  wild  confusion  of  conflicting 
orders  from  headquarters,  and  conflicting  authority  upon  the 
ground,  until  the  wonder  is  that  any  method  could  have  been 
obtained.  But  an  earnest  purpose  can  do  almost  everything,  and 
out  of  the  struggle  came  daylight  at  last.  The  first  gleam  of  it 
was  from  a  hospital  tent  and  kitchen,  which,  by  the  goodness  and 
thoughtfulness  of  Captain  (now  Colonel)  Sawtelle,  Assistant- 
Quartermaster,  was  pitched  for  the  Commission,  just  at  the  head 
of  the  wharf,  and  near  the  spot  where  the  men  arrived  in  the 
cars.  This  tent  (Dr.  Ware  gave  to  its  preparation  the  only  hour 
when  he  might  have  rested  through  that  long  nightmare)  became 
the  strength  and  the  comfort  of  the  Commission  people.  As  the 
men  passed  it,  from  cars  to  boat,  they  could  be  refreshed  and 
stimulated,  and  from  it  meals  were  sent  to  all  the  boats  at  the 


310  WOMAN'S    WORK    1^    THE    CIVIL   WAR. 

landing.  During  that  dreadful  battle-week,  three  thousand  men 
were  fed  from  that  tent.  It  was  not  the  Vale  of  Cashmere,  but 
many  dear  associations  cluster  round  it. 

After  the  pressure  was  over,  the  Commission  went  back  to  its 
old  routine,  but  upon  a  new  principle.  A  member  of  the  Com 
mission  came  clown  to  White  House  for  a  day  or  two,  and 
afterward  wrote  a  few  words  about  that  work.  As  he  saw  it 
with  a  fresh  eye,  his  letter  will  be  given  here.  He  says : — 

"J  wish  you  could  have  been  with  me  at  White  House  during 
my  late  visit,  to  see  how  much  is  being  done  by  our  agents  there 
to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  I 
have  seen  a  good  deal  of  suffering  among  our  volunteers,  and 
observed  the  marvellous  variety  and  energy  of  the  beneficence 
bestowed  by  the  patriotic  and  philanthropic  in  camp,  in  hospital, 
and  on  transports  for  the  sick ;  but  nothing  has  ever  impressed 
me  so  deeply  as  this.  Perhaps  I  can  better  illustrate  my  meaning 
by  sketching  a  few  of  the  daily  labors  of  the  agents  of  the  Com 
mission  as  I  saw  them.  The  sick  and  wounded  were  usually  sent 
down  from  the  front  by  rail,  a  distance  of  about  twenty  miles, 
over  a  rough  road,  and  in  the  common  freight-cars.  A  train 
generally  arrived  at  White  House  at  nine  P.  M.,  and  another  at 
two  A.  M.  In  order  to  prepare  for  the  reception  of  the  sick  and 
wounded,  Mr.  Olmstead,  with  Drs.  Jenkins  and  Ware,  had 
pitched,  by  the  side  of  the  railway,  at  White  House,  a  large  num 
ber  of  tents,  to  shelter  and  feed  the  convalescent.  These  tents 
were  their  only  shelter  while  waiting  to  be  shipped.  Among 
them  was  one  used  as  a  kitchen  and  work-room,  or  pantry,  by  the 
ladies  in  our  service,  who  prepared  beef-tea,  milk-punch,  and 
other  food  and  comforts,  in  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  the 
trains.  By  the  terminus  of  the  railway  the  large  Commission 
steamboat  '  Knickerbocker '  lay  in  the  Pamunkey,  in  readiness  for 
the  reception  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  patients,  provided  with 
comfortable  beds  and  a  corps  of  devoted  surgeons,  dressers,  nurses, 
and  litter-bearers.  Just  outside  of  this  vessel  lay  'The  Elizabeth/ 


THE    HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  311 

a  steam-barge,  loaded  with  the  hospital  stores  of  the  Commission, 
and  in  charge  of  a  store-keeper,  always  ready  to  issue  supplies. 
Outside  of  this  again  lay  'The  Wilson  Small/  the  headquarters 
of  our  Commission.  As  soon  as  a  train  arrived,  the  moderately 
sick  were  selected  and  placed  in  the  tents  near  the  railroad  and 
fed;  those  more  ill  were  carried  to  the  upper  saloon  of  'The 
Knickerbocker/  while  the  seriously  ill,  or  badly  wounded,  were 
placed  in  the  lower  saloon,  and  immediately  served  by  the  sur 
geons  and  dressers.  During  the  three  nights  that  I  observed  the 
working  of  the  system,  about  seven  hundred  sick  and  wounded 
were  provided  with  quarters  and  ministered  to  in  all  their  wants 
with  a  tender  solicitude  and  skill  that  excited  my  deepest  admira 
tion.  To  see  Drs.  Ware  and  Jenkins,  lantern  in  hand,  passing 
through  the  trains,  selecting  the  sick  with  reference  to  their 
necessities,  and  the  ladies  following  to  assuage  the  thirst,  or 
arouse,  by  judiciously  administered  stimulants,  the  failing  strength 
of  the  brave  and  uncomplaining  sufferers,  was  a  spectacle  of 
the  most  touching  character.  If  you  had  experienced  the  de 
bilitating  influence  of  the  Pamunkey  climate,  you  would  be 
filled  with  wonder  at  the  mere  physical  endurance  of  our  corps, 
who  certainly  could  not  have  been  sustained  in  the  performance 
of  duties,  involving  labor  by  day  and  through  sleepless  nights, 
without  a  strong  sense  of  their  usefulness  and  success. 

"At  Savage's  Station,  too,  the  Commission  had  a  valuable 
depot,  where  comfort  and  assistance  was  dispensed  to  the  sick 
when  changing  from  the  ambulances  to  the  cars.  I  wish  I  could 
do  justice  to  the  subject  of  my  hasty  narrative,  or  in  any  due 
measure  convey  to  your  mind  the  impressions  left  on  mine  in  ob 
serving,  even  casually,  the  operations  in  the  care  of  the  sick  at 
these  two  points. 

"  When  we  remember  what  was  done  by  the  same  noble  band 
of  laborers  after  the  battles  of  Williamsburg  and  Fair  Oaks,  in 
ministering  to  the  wants  of  thousands  of  wounded,  I  am  sure  that 


312 

we  shall  join  with  them  in  gratitude  and  thankfulness  that  they 
were  enabled  to  be  there." 

But  the  end  of  it  all  was  at  hand  ;  the  "  change  of  base,"  of 
which  the  Commission  had  some  private  intelligence,  came  to 
pass.  The  sick  and  wounded  were  carefully  gathered  up  from 
the  tents  and  hospitals,  and  sent  slowly  away  down  the  winding 
river — "  The  Wilson  Small "  lingering  as  long  as  possible,  till  the 
telegraph  wires  had  been  cut,  and  the  enemy  was  announced,  by 
mounted  messengers,  to  be  at  "  Tunstall's ;"  in  fact,  till  the  roar 
of  the  battle  came  nearer,  and  we  knew  that  Stoneman  with  his 
cavalry  was  falling  back  to  Williamsburg,  and  that  the  enemy 
were  about  to  march  into  our  deserted  places. 

"All  night  we  sat  on  the  deck  of  'The  Small'  slowly  moving 
away,  watching  the  constantly  increasing  cloud  and  the  fire-flashes 
over  the  trees  towards  the  White  House ;  watching  the  fading  out 
of  what  had  been  to  us,  through  these  strange  weeks,  a  sort  of 
home,  where  all  had  worked  together  and  been  happy ;  a  place 
which  is  sacred  to  some  of  us  now  for  its  intense  living  remem 
brances,  and  for  the  hallowing  of  them  all  by  the  memory  of  one 
who,  through  months  of  death  and  darkness,  lived  and  worked 
in  self-abnegation,  lived  in  and  for  the  suffering  of  others,  and 
finally  gave  himself  a  sacrifice  for  them."  * 

"We  are  coaling  here  to-night  (' Wilson  Small/  off  Norfolk, 
June  30th,  1862).  We  left  White  House  Saturday  night,  and 
rendezvoused  at  West  Point.  Captain  Sawtelle  sent  us  off  early, 
with  despatches  for  Fortress  Monroe ;  this  gave  us  the  special  fun 
of  being  the  first  to  come  leisurely  into  the  panic  then  raging  at 
Yorktown.  '  The  Small '  was  instantly  surrounded  by  terror- 
stricken  boats ;  the  people  of  the  big  i  St.  Mark '  leaned,  pale,  over 
their  bulwarks,  to  question  us.  Nothing  could  be  more  delightful 
than  to  be  as  calm  and  monosyllabic  as  we  were.  *****  ^\re 
at  daybreak  for  Harrison's  Bar,  James  River,  where  our 


Dr.  Kobert  Ware. 


THE   HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  313 

gunboats  are  said  to  be ;  we  hope  to  get  further  up,  but  General 
Dix  warns  us  that  it  is  not  safe.  What  are  we  about  to  learn  ? 
No  one  here  can  tell.  *  *  *  *  *  (Harrison's  Bar,  July  2d).  We 
arrived  here  yesterday  to  hear  the  thunder  of  the  battle,*  and  to 
find  the  army  just  approaching  this  landing  ;  last  night  it  was  a 
verdant  shore,  to-day  it  is  a  dusty  plain.  *  *  *  *  *  (  The  Spaul- 
ding '  has  passed  and  gone  ahead  of  us  ;  her  ironsides  can  carry  her 
safely  past  the  rifle-pits  which  line  the  shore.  No  one  can  tell  us 
as  yet  what  work  there  is  for  us ;  the  wounded  have  not  come 
in."  ***** 

"Hospital  Transport  'SpauldingJ  July  3d. — Reached  Harrison's 
Bar  at  11  A.  M.,  July  1st,  and  were  ordered  to  go  up  the  James 
River,  as  far  as  Carter's  Landing.  To  do  this  we  must  pass  the 
batteries  at  City  Point.  We  were  told  there  was  no  danger  if  we 
should  carry  a  yellow  flag;  yellow  flag  we  had  none,  so  we  trusted 
to  the  red  Sanitary  Commission,  and  prepared  to  run  it.  l  The 
Galena'  hailed  us  to  keep  below,  as  we  passed  the  battery. 
Shortly  after,  we  came  up  with  t  The  Monitor,'  and  the  little 
captain,  with  his  East  India  hat,  trumpet  in  hand,  repeated  the 
advice  of  '  The  Galena,'  and  added,  that  if  he  heard  firing,  he  would 
follow  us.  Our  cannon  pointed  its  black  muzzle  at  the  shore,  and 
on  we  went.  As  .we  left (  The  Monitor/  the  captain  came  to  me, 
with  his  grim  smile,  and  said, '  I'll  take  those  mattresses  you  spoke 
of.'  We  had  joked,  as  people  will,  about  our  danger,  and  I  had 
suggested  mattresses  round  the  wheel-house,  never  thinking  that 
he  would  try  it.  But  the  captain  was  in  earnest ;  when  was  he 
anything  else?  So  the  contrabands  brought  up  the  mattresses, 
and  piled  them  against  the  wheel-house,  and  the  pilot  stood 
against  the  mast,  with  a  mattress  slung  in  the  rigging  to  protect 
him.  In  an  hour  we  had  passed  the  danger  and  reached  Carter's 
Landing,  and  there  was  the  army,  '  all  that  was  left  of  it.'  *  *  * 
Over  all  the  bank,  on  the  lawns  of  that  lovely  spot,  under  the 


*  Malvern  Hill. 
40 


314 

shade  of  the  large  trees  that  fringed  the  outer  park,  lay  hundreds 
of  our  poor  boys,  brought  from  the  battle-fields  of  six  days.  It 
seemed  a  hopeless  task  even  to  feed  them.  We  went  first  into 
the  hospital,  and  gave  them  refreshment  all  round.  One  man, 
burnt  up  with  fever,  burst  into  tears  when  I  spoke  to  him.  I 
held  his  hand  silently,  and  at  last  he  sobbed  out,  l  You  are  so 
kind, — I — am  so  weak/  We  were  ordered  by  the  surgeon  in 
charge  to  station  ourselves  on  the  lawn,  and  wait  the  arrival  of 
the  ambulances,  so  as  to  give  something  (we  had  beef-tea,  soup, 
brandy,  etc.,  etc.)  to  the  poor  fellows  as  they  arrived.  *  *  *  *  * 
Late  that  night  came  peremptory  orders  from  the  Quartermaster, 
for  'The  Spaulding'  to  drop  down  to  Harrison's  Landing.  We 
took  some  of  the  wounded  with  us ;  others  went  by  land  or  ambu 
lances,  and  some — it  seems  incredible — walked  the  distance. 
Others  were  left  behind  and  taken  prisoners;  for  the  enemy 
reached  Carter's  Landing  as  we  left  it." 

The  work  of  the  Commission  upon  the  hospital  transports  was 
about  to  close. 

But  before  it  was  all  over,  the  various  vessels  had  made  several 
trips  in  the  service  of  the  Commission,  and  one  voyage  of  "  The 
Spaulding"  must  not  pass  unrecorded. 

"We  were  ordered  up  to  City  Point,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  to 
receive  our  wounded  men  who  were  prisoners  in  Kichmond.  *  * 
*  *  *  At  last  the  whistle  sounded  and  the  train  came  in  sight. 
The  poor  fellows  set  up  a  weak  cheer  at  the  sight  of  the  old  flag, 
and  those  who  had  the  strength  hobbled  and  tumbled  off  the  train 
almost  before  it  stopped.  We  took  four  hundred  and  one  on 
board.  Two  other  vessels  which  accompanied  us  took  each  two 
hundred  more.  The  rebel  soldiers  had  been  kind  to  our  men, — 
so  they  said, — but  the  citizens  had  taken  pains  to  insult  them. 
One  man  burst  into  tears  as  he  was  telling  me  of  their  misery : 
'  May  God  defend  me  from  such  again.'  God  took  him  to  Him 
self,  poor  suffering  soul !  He  died  the  next  morning, — died 


THE    HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   SERVICE.  315 

because  he  would  not  let  them  take  off  his  arm.  '  I  wasn't  going 
to  let  them  have  it  in  Richmond ;  I  said  I  would  take  it  back  to 
old  Massachusetts.'  Of  course  we  had  a  hard  voyage  with  our 
poor  fellows  in  such  a  condition,  but,  at  least,  they  were  cleaned 
and  well  fed." 


OTHER  LABORS   OF  SOME  OF   THE   MEMBERS  OF   THE 
HOSPITAL   TRANSPORT   CORPS. 


OST  of  the  ladies  connected  with  this  Hospital  Trans 
port  service,  distinguished  themselves  in  other  depart 
ments  of  philanthropic  labor  for  the  soldiers,  often  not 
less  arduous,  and  sometimes  not  cheered  by  so  pleasant 
companionship.  Miss  BRADLEY,  as  we  have  seen  accomplished 
a  noble  work  in  connection  with  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Wash 
ington,  and  the  Rendezvous  of  Distribution  ;  Miss  GILSON  and 
Mrs.  HUSBAND  were  active  in  every  good  word  and  work ;  Mrs 
CHARLOTTE  BRADFORD  succeeded  Miss  Bradley  in  the  charge 
of  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Washington,  where  she  accomplished  a 
world  of  good.  Mrs.  W.  P.  GRIFFIN,  though  compelled  by  ill 
ness  contracted  during  her  services  on  the  Peninsula,  returned 
with  quickened  zeal  and  more  fervid  patriotism  to  her  work  in 
connection  with  the  "Woman's  Central  Association  of  Relief/' 
in  New  York,  of  which  she  was  up  to  the  close  of  the  war  one 
of  the  most  active  and  untiring  managers.  Miss  HARRIET 
DOUGLAS  WHETTEN,  who  after  two  or  three  voyages  back  and 
forth  in  different  vessels,  was  finally  placed  in  charge  of  the 
Woman's  Department  on  board  of  the  Spaulding,  where  she 
remained  until  that  vessel  was  given  up  -by  the  Commission,  and 
indeed  continued  on  board  for  two  or  three  voyages  after  the  ves 
sel  became  a  Government  hospital  transport.  Her  management 
on  board  the  Spaulding  was  admirable,  eliciting  the  praise  of  all 
who  saw  it.  When  the  Portsmouth  Grove  General  Hospital  in 

316 


OTHER  LABORS  IX  THE  HOSPITAL  TRANSPORT  CORPS.        317 

Rhode  Island  was  opened,  under  the  charge  of  Miss  Wormeley, 
as  Lady  Superintendent,  that  lady  invited  her  to  become  her 
assistant ;  she  accepted  the  invitation  and  remained  there  a  year, 
when  she  was  invited  to  become  Lady  Superintendent  of  the 
Carver  General  Hospital,  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  a  position  of 
great  responsibility,  which  she  filled  with  the  greatest  credit  and 
success,  retaining  it  to  the  close  of  the  war. 

An  intimate  friend,  who  was  long  associated  with  her,  says  of 
her,  "Miss  Whetten's  absolute  and  untiring  devotion  to  the  sick 
men  was  beyond  all  praise.  She  is  a  born  nurse.  She  was  per 
haps  less  energetic  and  rapid  than  others,  but  no  one  could  quite 
come  up  to  her  in  tender  care,  and  in  that  close  watching  and 
sympathetic  knowledge  about  a  patient  which  belongs  only  to  a 
true  nurse.  And  when  I  say  that  she  was  less  energetic  than 
some,  I  am  in  fact  saying  something  to  her  honor.  Her  nature 
was  calmer  and  less  energetic,  but  she  worked  as  hard  and  for  a 

O  / 

longer  time  together  than  any  of  us,  and  this  was  directly  in 
opposition  to  her  habits  and  disposition,  and  was  in  fact  a  triumph 
over  herself.  She  did  more  than  any  one  personally  for  the  men 
— the  rest  of  us  worked  more  generally — when  a  man's  sufferings 
or  necessities  were  relieved,  we  thought  no  more  about  him — but 
she  took  a  warm  personal  interest  in  the  individual.  In  the  end 
this  strain  upon  her  feelings  wore  down  her  spirits,  but  it  was  a 
feature  of  her  success,  and  there  must  be  many  a  poor  fellow, 
who  if  he  heard  her  name  "would  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed." 

Three  or  four  of  the  ladies  especially  connected  with  the  head 
quarters  of  the  Commission  in  the  Hospital  Transport  Service, 
from  their  important  services  elsewhere,  are  entitled  to  a  fuller 
notice.  Among  these  AVC  must  include  the  accomplished  historian 
of  the  earlier  work  of  the  Commission. 


KATHERINE   P.   WORMELEY. 


MONG  the  many  of  our  countrywomen  who  have  been 
active  and  ardent  in  the  soldier's  cause,  some  may  have 
devoted  themselves  to  the  service  for  a  longer  period, 
but  few  with  more  earnestness  and  greater  ability  than 
the  lady  whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  sketch,  and  few 
have  entered  into  a  greater  variety  of  details  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  work. 

Katherine  Prescott  Wormeley  was  born  in  England.  Her 
father  though  holding  the  rank  of  a  Rear- Admiral  in  the  British 
Navy,  was  a  native  of  Virginia.  Her  mother  is  a  native  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts.  Miss  Wormeley  may  therefore  be  said 
to  be  alien  to  her  birth-place,  and  to  be  an  American  in  fact  as 
in  feelings.  She  now  resides  with  her  mother  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island. 

Miss  Wormeley  was  among  the  earliest  to  engage  in  the  work 
of  procuring  supplies  and  aid  for  the  volunteer  soldiery.  The 
work  began  in  Newport  early  in  July,  1861.  The  first  meeting 
of  wT>men  was  held  informally  at  the  house  of  Miss  Wormeley's 
mother.  An  organization  was  obtained,  rooms  secured  (being 
lent  for  the  purpose),  and  about  two  thousand  dollars  subscribed. 
The  Society,  which  assumed  the  name  of  the  "Woman's  Union 
Aid  Society''  immediately  commenced  the  work  with  vigor,  and 
shortly  forwarded  to  the  Sanitary  Commission  at  Washington 
their  first  cases  of  clothing  and  supplies.  Miss  Wormeley 
remained  at  the  head  of  this  society  until  April,  1862.  It  was 

318 


KATHERINE    PRESCOTT    WORMELEY.  319 

kept  in  funds  by  private  gifts,  and  by  the  united  efforts  of  all  the 
churches  of  Newport,  and  the  United  States  Naval  Academy 
which  was  removed  thither  from  Annapolis,  Maryland,  in  the 
spring  of  1861. 

During  the  summer  of  1861  several  ladies  (summer  residents 
of  Newport),  were  in  the  habit  of  sending  to  Miss  Wormeley 
many  poor  women,  with  the  request  that  she  would  furnish  them 
with  steady  employment  upon  hospital  clothing,  the  ladies  paying 
for  the  work.  After  they  left,  the  poor  women  whom  they  had 
thus  benefited,  felt  the  loss  severely,  and  the  thought  occurred  to 
Miss  Wormeley  that  the  outfitting  of  a"  great  army  must  furnish 
much  suitable  work  for  them  could  it  be  reached. 

After  revolving  the  subject  in  her  own  mind,  she  wrote  to 
Quartermaster-General  Meigs  at  Washington,  making  inquiries, 
and  was  by  him  referred  to  the  Department  Quartermaster- 
General,  Colonel  D.  H.  Yinton,  United  States  Army,  office  of 
army  clothing  and  equipage,  New  York.  Colonel  Yinton  replied 
in  the  kindest  manner,  stating  the  difficulties  of  the  matter,  but 
expressing  his  willingness  to  give  Miss  Wormeley  a  contract  if 
she  thought  she  could  surmount  them. 

Miss  Wormeley  found  her  courage  equal  to  the  attempt,  and 
succeeded  far  more  easily  than  she  had  expected  in  carrying  out 
her  plans.  She  engaged  rooms  at  a  low  rent,  and  found  plenty 
of  volunteer  assistance  on  all  sides.  Ladies  labored  unweariedly 
in  cutting  and  distributing  the  work  to  the  applicants.  Gentle 
men  packed  the  cases,  and  attended  to  the  shipments.  During 
the  winter  of  1861-2  about  fifty  thousand  army  shirts  were  thus 
made,  not  one  of  which  was  returned  as  imperfect,  and  she  was 
thus  enabled  to  circulate  in  about  one  hundred  families,  a  sum 
equal  to  six  thousand  dollars,  which  helped  them  well  through 
the  winter. 

Colonel  Yinton,  as  was  the  case  with  other  officers  very  gene 
rally  throughout  the  war,  showed  great  kindness  and  appreciation 
of  these  efforts  of  women.  And  though  this  contract  must  have 


320 

given  him  far  more  trouble  than  contracts  with  regular  clothing 
establishments,  his  goodness,  which  was  purely  benevolent,  never 
flagged. 

During  all  this  time  the  work  of  the  Women's  Union  Aid 
Society  was  also  carried  on  at  Miss  Wormeley's  rooms,  and  a 
large  number  of  cases  were  packed  and  forwarded  thence,  either 
to  New  York  or  directly  to  Washington.  Miss  Wormeley,  her 
self,  still  superintended  this  matter,  and  though  an  Associate 
Manager  of  the  New  England  Women's  Branch  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  preferred  this  direct  transmission  as  a  saving  both 
of  time  and  expense. 

The  Society  was  earnest  and  indefatigable  in  its  exertions, 
acting  always  with  great  promptness  and  energy  while  under  the 
direction  of  Miss  Wormeley.  On  one  occasion,  as  an  instance,  a 
telegraphic  message  from  Washington  brought  at  night  an  urgent 
call  for  a  supply  of  bed-sacks.  Early  in  the  morning  all  the 
material  in  Newport  was  bought  up,  as  many  sewing-machines  as 
possible  obtained,  and  seventy-five  bed-sacks  finished  and  sent  off 
that  day,  and  as  many  more  the  following  day. 

Miss  Wormeley  was  just  closing  up  her  contract  when,  in  April, 
1862,  the  "  Hospital  Transport  Service"  was  organized,  princi 
pally  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Frederick  Law  Olmstead,  the  General 
Secretary  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  The  sudden  transfer  of 
the  scene  of  active  war  from  the  high  grounds  bordering  the 
Potomac  to  a  low  and  swampy  region  intersected  by  a  network  of 
creeks  and  rivers,  made  necessary  appliances  for  the  care  of  the 
sick  and  wounded,  which  the  Government  was  not  at  that  time 
prepared  to  furnish.  Hence  arose  the  arrangement  by  which 
certain  large  steamers,  chartered,  but  then  unemployed  by  the 
Government,  were  transferred  to  the  Sanitary  Commission  to  be 
fitted  up  as  Hospital  Transports  for  the  reception  and  conveyance 
of  the  sick  and  wounded.  To  the  superintendence  of  this  work, 
care  of  the  sick,  and  other  duties  of  this  special  service,  a  number 


KATHERINE    PRESCOTT    WORMELEY.  321 

of  agents  of  the  Commission,  with  volunteers  of  both  sexes,  were 
appointed,  and  after  protracted  and  vexatious  delays  in  procuring 
the  first  transports  assembled  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  on  the  25th 
of  April,  and  embarked  on  the  Daniel  Webster  for  York  River, 
which  they  reached  on  the  30th  of  April. 

Miss  Wormeley  was  one  of  the  first  to  become  connected  with 
this  branch  of  the  service,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  her  field  of 
duty.  She  remained  in  this  employment  until  August  of  the 
same  year,  and  passed  through  all  the  horrors  of  the  Peninsula 
campaign.  By  this,  of  course,  is  not  understood  the  battles  of  the 
campaign,  nor  the  army  movements,  but  the  reception,  washing,' 
feeding,  and  ministering  to  the  sick  and  the  wounded — scenes 
which  are  too  full  of  horror  for  tongue  to  tell,  or  pen  to  describe, 
but  which  must  always  remain  indelibly  impressed  upon  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  those  who  were  actors  in  them. 

The  ladies,  it  may  be  observed,  who  were  attached  to  the 
Hospital  Transport  Corps  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Commission, 
were  all  from  the  higher  walks  of  society,  women  of  the  greatest 
culture  and  refinement,  and  unaccustomed  to  toil  or  exhausting 
care.  Yet  not  one  of  them  shrank  from  hardship,  or  revolted 
at  any  labor  or  exertion  which  could  serve  to  bring  comfort  to 
the  sufferers  under  their  charge. 

Active  and  endowed  with  extraordinary  executive  ability, 
Miss  Wormeley  was  distinguished  for  her  great  usefulness  during 
this  time  of  fierce  trial,  when  the  malaria  of  the  Chickahominy 
swamps  was  prostrating  its  thousands  of  brave  men,  and  the 
battles  of  Williamsburg,  White  House,  and  Fair  Oaks,  and  the 
disastrous  retreat  to  Harrison's  Landing  were  marked  by  an  almost 
unexampled  carnage. 

While  the  necessity  of  exertion  continued,  Miss  Wormeley 
and  her  associates  bore  up  bravely,  but  no  sooner  was  this  ended 
than  nearly  all  succumbed  to  fever,  or  the  exhaustion  of  excessive 
and  protracted  fatigue.  Nevertheless,  within  a  few  days  after 
Miss  Wormeley 's  return  home,  the  Surgeon-General,  passing 

41 


322  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

through  Newport,  came  to  call  upon  her  and  personally  solicit 
her  to  take  charge  of  the  Woman's  Department  of  the  Lowell 
General  Hospital,  then  being  organized  at  Portsmouth  Grove, 
K.  I.  After  a  brief  hesitation,  on  account  of  her  health,  Miss 
Wormeley  assented  to  the  proposal,  and  on  the  1st  of  September, 
1862,  went  to  the  hospital.  She  was  called,  officially,  the  "Lady 
Superintendent,"  and  her  duties  were  general ;  they  consisted  less 
of  actual  nursing,  than  the  organization  and  superintendence  of 
her  department.  Under  her  charge  were  the  Female  Nurses, 
the  Diet  Kitchens,  and  Special  diet,  the  Linen  Department,  and 
the  Laundry,  where  she  had  a  steam  Washing  Machine,  which 
was  capable  of  washing  and  mangling  four  thousand  pieces  a 
day. 

The  hospital  had  beds  for  two  thousand  five  hundred  patients. 
Four  friends  of  Miss  Wormeley  joined  her  here,  and  were  her 
Assistant  Superintendents — Misses  G.  M.  and  J.  S.  Woolsey,  Miss 
Harriet  D.  Whetten,>  of  New  York,  and  Miss  Sarah  C.  Wool 
sey,  of  New  Haven.  Each  of  these  had  charge  of  seven  Wards, 
and  was  responsible  to  the  surgeons  for  the  nursing  and  diet 
of  the  sick  men.  To  the  exceedingly  valuable  co-operation  of 
these  ladies,  Miss  Wormeley  has,  on  all  occasions,  attributed  in 
a  great  measure  the  success  which  attended  and  rewarded  her 
services  in  this  department  of  labor,  as  also  to  the  kindness  of 
the  Surgeon  in  charge,  Dr.  Lewis  A.  Edwards,  and  of  his  Assist 
ants. 

She  remained  at  Portsmouth  Grove  a.  little  more  than  a  year, 
carrying  on  the  arrangements  of  her  department  with  great  ability 
and  perfect  success.  On  holidays,  through  the  influence  of  her 
self  and  her  assistants,  the  inmates  received  ample  donations  for 
the  feasts  appropriate  to  the  occasions,  and  at  all  times  liberal 
gifts  of  books,  games,  &c.,  for  their  instruction  and  entertain 
ment.  But  in  September,  1863,  partly  from  family  reasons,  and 
partly  because  her  health  gave  way,  she  was  forced  to  resign  and 
return  home. 


KATHERIXE    PEESCOTT    WORMELEY.  323 

From  that  time  her  labors  in  hospital  ceased.  But,  in  the 
following  December,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George 
Ticknor,  of  Boston,  and  of  other  friends,  she  prepared  for  the 
Boston  Sanitary  Fair,  a  charming  volume  entitled,  "The  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission ;  A  Sketch  of  its  Purposes  and  its 
Work." 

This  book,  owing  to  unavoidable  hindrances,  was  not  com 
menced  till  so  late  that  but  eleven  days  were  allowed  for  its 
completion.  But,  with  her  accustomed  energy,  having  most  of  her 
materials  at  hand,  Miss  Wormeley  commenced  and  finished  the 
book  within  the  specified  time,  without  other  assistance  than  that 
volunteered  by  friends  in  copying  and  arranging  papers.  Grace- 
fid  in  style,  direct  in  detail,  plain  in  statement  and  logical  in 
argument,  it  shows,  however,  no  traces  of  hasty  writing.  It  met 
with  great  and  deserved  success,  and  netted  some  hundreds  of 
dollars  to  the  fair. 

Miss  Wormeley  attributes  much  of  the  success  of  her  work,  in 
all  departments,  to  the  liberality  of  her  friends.  During  the  war 
she  received  from  the  community  of  Newport,  alone,  over  seven 
teen  thousand  dollars,  beside,  large  donations  of  brandy,  wine, 
flannel,  etc.,  for  the  Commission  and  hospital  use.  The  Newport 
Aid  Society,  which  she  assisted  in  organizing,  worked  well  and 
faithfully  to  the  end,  and  rendered  valuable  services  to  the  San 
itary  Commission,  and  she  was  enabled  at  all  times  to  add  largely 
to  its  funds.  Since  the  completion  of  her  book,  her  health  has 
not  permitted  her  to  engage  in  active  service. 


THE    MISSES   WOOLSEY. 


E  are  not  aware  of  any  other  instance  among  the  women 
who  have  devoted  themselves  to  works  of  philanthropy 
and  patriotism  during  the  recent  war,  in  which  four 
sisters  have  together  consecrated  their  services  to  the 
cause  of  the  nation.  In  social  position,  culture,  refinement,  and 
all  that  could  make  life  pleasant,  Misses  Georgiana  and  Jane  C. 
Woolsey,  and  their  married  sisters,  Mrs.  Joseph  and  Mrs.  Robert 
Rowland,  were  blessed  above  most  women ;  and  if  there  were  any 
who  might  have  deemed  themselves  excused  from  entering  upon 
the  drudgery,  the  almost  menial  service  incident  to  the  Hospital 
Transport  service,  to  the  position  of  Assistant  Superintendent  of  a 
crowded  hospital,  of  nurse  in  field  hospitals  after  a  great  battle,  or 
of  instructors  and  superintendents  of  freedmen  and  freedwomen  ; 
these  ladies  might  have  pleaded  an  apology  for  some  natural 
shrinking  from  the  work,  from  its  dissimilarity  to  all  their  pre 
vious  pursuits.  But  to  the  call  of  duty  and  patriotism,  they  had 
no  such  objections  to  urge. 

Mrs.  Joseph  Howland  was  the  wife  of  a  Colonel  in  the  Union 
army,  and  felt  it  a  privilege  to  do  something  for  the  brave  men 
with  whom  her  husband's  interests  were  identified,  and  accom 
panying  him  to  the  camp  whenever  this  was  permitted,  she  minis 
tered  to  the  sick  or  wounded  men  of  his  command  with  a  tender 
ness  and  gentleness  which  won  all  hearts.  When  the  invitation 
was  given  to  her  and  her  sister  to  unite  with  others  in  the  Hospital 
Transport  service,  she  rejoiced  at  the  opportunity  for  wider  use- 

324 


THE   MISSES    WOOLSEY.  325 

fulness  in  the  cause  she  loved ;  how  faithfully,  earnestly,  and 
persistently  she  toiled  is  partially  revealed  in  the  little  work 
published  by  some  of  her  associates,  under  the  title  of  "  Hospital 
Transports/7  but  was  fully  known  only  by  those  who  shared  in 
her  labors,  and  those  who  were  the  recipients  of  her  kind  atten 
tions.  One  of  these,  a  private  in  the  Sixteenth  New  York  Regi 
ment  (her  husband's  regiment),  and  who  had  been  under  her  care 
on  one  of  the  Commission's  transports  at  White  House,  expressed 
his  gratitude  in  the  following  graceful  lines  • 

"  From  old  St.  Paul  till  now 
Of  honorable  women,  not  a  few 
Have  left  their  golden  ease,  in  love  to  do 
The  saintly  work  which  Christ-like  hearts  pursue. 

"  And  such  an  one  art  thou  ?     God's  fair  apostle, 
Bearing  his  love  in  war's  horrific  train ; 
Thy  blessed  feet  follow  its  ghastly  pain, 
And  misery  and  death  without  disdain. 

"  To  one  borne  from  the  sullen  battle's  roar, 
Dearer  the  greeting  of  thy  gentle  eyes 
When  he,  a-weary,  torn,  and  bleeding  lies, 
Than  all  the  glory  that  the  victors  prize. 

"When  peace  shall  come  and  homes  shall  smile  again, 
A  thousand  soldier  hearts,  in  northern  climes, 
Shall  tell  their  little  children  in  their  rhymes 
Of  the  sweet  saints  who  blessed  the  old  wnr  times." 

On  the  Chickahominy,  June  12th,  1862. 

Impaired  health,  the  result  of  the  excessive  labors  of  that  battle 
summer,  prevented  Mrs.  Rowland  from  further  active  service  in 
the  field;  but  whenever  her  health  permitted,  she  visited  and 
labored  in  the  hospitals  around  Washington,  and  her  thoughtful 
attention  and  words  of  encouragement  to  the  women  nurses  ap 
pointed  by  Miss  Dix,  and  receiving  a  paltry  stipend  from  the 
Government,  were  most  gratefully  appreciated  by  those  self- 
denying,  hard-working,  and  often  sorely-tried  women — many  of 


326  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

them  the  peers  in  culture,  refinement  and  intellect  of  any  lady  in 
the  land,  but  treated  with  harshness  and  discourtesy  by  boy- 
surgeons,  who  lacked  the  breeding  or  instincts  of  the  gentleman. 
Her  genuine  modesty  and  humility  have  led  her,  as  well  as  her 
sisters,  to  deprecate  any  notoriety  or  public  notice  of  their  work, 
which  they  persist  in  regarding  as  unworthy  of  record;  but  so  will 
it  not  be  regarded  by  the  soldiers  who  have  been  rescued  from 
inevitable  death  by  their  persistent  toil,  nor  by  a  nation  grateful 
for  the  services  rendered  to  its  brave  defenders. 

Mrs.  Robert  S.  Howland  was  the  wife  of  a  clergyman,  and  an 
earnest  worker  in  the  hospitals  and  in  the  Metropolitan  Sanitary 
Fair,  and  her  friends  believed  that  her  over-exertion  in  the  prep 
aration  and  attendance  upon  that  fair,  contributed  to  shorten  a 
life  as  precious  and  beautiful  as  was  ever  offered  upon  the  altar 
of  patriotism.  Mrs.  Howland  possessed  rare  poetic  genius,  and 
some  of  her  effusions,  suggested  by  incidents  of  army  or  hospital 
life,  are  worthy  of  preservation  as  among  the  choicest  gems  of 
poetry  elicited  by  the  war.  "A  Rainy  Day  in  Camp,"  "A  Mes 
sage  from  the  Army/7  etc.,  are  poems  which  many  of  our  readers 
will  recall  with  interest  and  pleasure.  A  shorter  one  of  equal 
merit  and  popularity,  we  copy  not  only  for  its  brevity,  but  because 
it  expresses  so  fully  the  perfect  peace  which  filled  her  heart  as 
completely  as  it  did  that  of  the  subject  of  the  poem : 


IN  THE  HOSPITAL. 

"S.  S ,  a  Massachusetts  Sergeant,  worn  out  with  heavy  marches,  wounds 

and  camp  disease,  died  in General  Hospital,  in  November,  18G3,  in  'per 
fect  peace.'  Some  who  witnessed  daily  his  wonderful  sweet  patience  and  con 
tent,  through  great  languor  and  weariness,  fancied  sometimes  they  'could 
already  see  the  brilliant  particles  of  a  halo  in  the  air  about  his  head.' 

"I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 

With  little  thought  or  care, 
Whether  my  waking  find 
Me  here— or  THERE! 


THE    MISSES   WOOLSEY.  327 

"A  bowing,  burdened  head, 
That  only  asks  to  rest, 
Unquestioning,  upon 
A  loving  Breast. 

"  My  good  right-hand  forgets 

Its  cunning  now — 
To  march  the  weary  march 
I  know  not  how. 

"I  am  not  eager,  bold, 

Nor  strong — all  that  is  past: 
I  am  ready  NOT  TO  DO 
At  last — at  last! 

"My  half-day's  work  is  done, 

And  this  is  all  my  part; 
I  give  a  patient  God 
My  patient  heart. 

"And  grasp  his  banner  still, 

Though  all  its  blue  be  dim ; 
These  stripes,  no  less  than  stars, 
Lead  after  Him." 

Mrs.  Howland  died  in  the  summer  of  1864. 

Miss  Georgiana  M.  Woolsey,  was  one  of  the  most  efficient 
ladies  connected  with  the  Hospital  Transport  service,  where  her 
constant  cheerfulness,  her  ready  wit,  her  never  failing  resources 
of  contrivance  and  management  in  any  emergency,  made  the 
severe  labor  seem  light,  and  by  keeping  up  the  spirits  of  the 
entire  party,  prevented  the  scenes  of  suffering  constantly  presented 
from  rendering  them  morbid  or  depressed.  She  took  the  position 
of  assistant  superintendent  of  the  Portsmouth  Grove  General 
Hospital,  in  September,  1862,  when  her  friend,  Miss  Wormeley, 
became  superintendent,  and  remained  there  till  the  spring  of 
1863,  was  actively  engaged  in  the  care  of  the  wounded  at  Fal- 
mouth  after  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  was  on  the  field  soon 
after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  wrote  that  charming  and 
graphic  account  of  the  labors  of  herself  and  a  friend  at  Gettys- 


328 

burg  in  the  service  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  which  was  so 
widely  circulated,  and  several  times  reprinted  in  English  reviews 
and  journals.  We  cannot  refrain  from  introducing  it  as  one  of 
those  narratives  of  actual  philanthropic  work  of  which  we  have 
altogether  too  few. 

THREE  WEEKS  AT  GETTYSBURG. 

"July,  1863. 

"  DEAR :    What  we  did  at  Gettysburg,  for  the  three  weeks 

we  were  there,  you  will  want  to  know.     'We/  are  Mrs.* 

and  I,  who,  happening  to  be  on  hand  at  the  right  moment,  gladly 
fell  in  with  the  proposition  to  do  what  we  could  at  the  Sanitary 
Commission  Lodge  after  the  battle.  There  were,  of  course,  the 
agents  of  the  Commission,  already  on  the  field,  distributing  sup 
plies  to  the  hospitals,  and  working  night  and  day  among  the 
wounded.  I  cannot  pretend  to  tell  you  what  was  done  by  all  the 
big  wheels  of  the  concern,  but  only  how  two  of  the  smallest  ones 
went  round,  and  what  turned  up  in  the  going. 

"Twenty-four  hours  we  were  in  making  the  journey  between 
Baltimore  and  Gettysburg,  places  only  four  hours  apart  in  ordi 
nary  running  time;  and  this  will  give  you  some  idea  of  the  diffi 
culty  there  was  in  bringing  up  supplies  when  the  fighting  was 
over,  and  of  the  delays  in  transporting  wounded.  Coming  toward 
the  town  at  this  crawling  rate,  we  passed  some  fields  where  the 
fences  were  down  and  the  ground  slightly  tossed  up:  'That's 
where  Kilpatrick's  Cavalry-men  fought  the  rebels/  some  one 
said;  'and  close  by  that  barn  a  rebel  soldier  was  found  day  before 
yesterday,  sitting  dead' — no  one  to  help,  poor  soul, — 'near  the 
whole  city  full.'  The  railroad  bridge  broken  up  by  the  enemy, 
Government  had  not  rebuilt  as  yet,  and  we  stopped  two  miles 
from  the  town,  to  find  that,  as  usual,  just  where  the  Government 
had  left  off  the  Commission  came  in.  There  stood  their  tempo 
rary  lodge  and  kitchen,  and  here,  hobbling  out  of  their  tents, 


Her  mother,  Mrs.  Woolsey. 


THE   MISSES   WOOLSEY.  329 

came  the  wounded  men  who  had  made  their  way  down  from  the 
corps-hospitals,  expecting  to  leave  at  once  in  the  return-cars. 

"  This  is  the  way  the  thing  was  managed  at  first :  The  surgeons 
left  in  care  of  the  wounded  three  or  four  miles  out  from  the  town, 
went  up  and  down  among  the  men  in  the  morning,  and  said, 
1  Any  of  you  boys  who  can  make  your  way  to  the  cars  can  go  to 
Baltimore.7  So  off  start  all  who  think  they  feel  well  enough; 
anything  better  than  the  '  hospitals/  so  called,  for  the  first  few 
days  after  a  battle.  Once  the  men  have  the  surgeons7  permission 
to  go,  they  are  off;  and  there  may  be  an  interval  of  a  day,  or  two 
days,  should  any  of  them  be  too  weak  to  reach  the  train  in  time, 
during  which  these  poor  fellows  belong  to  no  one, — the  hospital 
at  one  end,  the  railroad  at  the  other, — with  far  more  than  a  chance 
of  falling  through  between  the  two.  The  Sanitary  Commission 
knew  this  would  be  so  of  necessity,  and,  coming  in,  made  a  con 
necting  link  between  these  two  ends. 

"For  the  first  few  days  the  worst  cases  only  came  down  in 
ambulances  from  the  hospitals;  hundreds  of  fellows  hobbled 
along  as  best  they  could  in  heat  and  dust,  for  hours,  slowly  toil 
ing;  and  many  hired  farmers7  wagons,  as  hard  as  the  farmers7 
fists  themselves,  and  were  jolted  down  to  the  railroad,  at  three  or 
four  dollars  the  man.  Think  of  the  disappointment  of  a  soldier, 
sick,  body  and  heart,  to  find,  at  the  end  of  this  miserable  journey, 
that  his  effort  to  get  away,  into  which  he  had  put  all  his  remain 
ing  stock  of  strength,  was  useless;  that  'the  cars  had  gone,7  or 
1  the  cars  were  full  ;7  that  while  he  was  coming  others  had  stepped 
down  before  him,  and  that  he  must  turn  all  the  weary  way  back 
again,  or  sleep  on  the  road-side  till  the  next  train  ( to-morrow  !7 
Think  what  this  would  have  been,  and  you  are  ready  to  appre 
ciate  the  relief  and  comfort  that  wets.  No  men  were  turned  back. 
You  fed  and  you  sheltered  them  just  when  no  one  else  could  have 
done  so;  and  out  of  the  boxes  and  barrels  of  good  and  nourish 
ing  things,  which  you  people  at  home  had  supplied,  we  took  all 
that  was  needed.  Some  of  you  sent  a  stove  (that  is,  the  money  to 

42 


330  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

get  it),  some  of  you  the  beef-stock,  some  of  you  the  milk  and 
fresh  bread;  and  all  of  you  would  have  been  thankful  that  you 
had  done  so,  could  you  have  seen  the  refreshment  and  comfort 
received  through  these  things. 

"As  soon  as  the  men  hobbled  up  to  the  tents,  good  hot  soup 
was  given  all  round ;  and  that  over,  their  wounds  were  dressed, 
— for  the  gentlemen  of  the  Commission  are  cooks  or  surgeons,  as 
occasion  demands, — and,  finally,  with  their  blankets  spread  over 
the  straw,  the  men  stretched  themselves  out  and  were  happy  and 
contented  till  morning,  and  the  next  train. 

"  On  the  day  that  the  railroad  bridge  was  repaired,  we  moved 
up  to  the  depot,  close  by  the  town,  and  had  things  in  perfect 
order;  a  first-rate  camping-ground,  in  a  large  field  directly  by 
the  track,  with  unlimited  supply  of  delicious  cool  water.  Here 
we  set  up  two  stoves,  with  four  large  boilers,  always  kept  full  of 
soup  and  coffee,  watched  by  four  or  five  black  men,  who  did  the 
cooking,  under  our  direction,  and  sang  (not  under  our  direction) 
at  the  top  of  their  voices  all  day, — 

'  Oh  darkies,  hab  you  seen  my  Massa  ?' 
'  When  this  cruel  war  is  over.' 

Then  we  had  three  large  hospital  tents,  holding  about  thirty-five 
each,  a  large  camp-meeting  supply  tent,  where  barrels  of  goods 
were  stored,  and  our  own  smaller  tent,  fitted  up  with  tables, 
where  jelly-pots,  and  bottles  of  all  kinds  of  good  syrups,  black 
berry  and  black  currant,  stood  in  rows.  Barrels  were  ranged 
round  the  tent-walls;  shirts,  drawers,  dressing-gowns,  socks,  and 
slippers  (I  wish  we  had  had  more  of  the  latter),  rags  and  ban 
dages,  each  in  its  own 'place  on  one  side;  on  the  other,  boxes  of 
tea,  coffee,  soft  crackers,  tamarinds,  cherry  brandy,  etc.  Over  the 
kitchen,  and  over  this  small  supply-tent,  we  women  rather 
reigned,  and  filled  up  our  wants  by  requisition  on  the  Commis 
sion's  depot.  By  this  time  there  had  arrived  a  ' delegation7  of 
just  the  right  kind  from  Canandaigua,  New  York,  with  surgeons' 


THE    MISSES    WOOLS EV.  331 

dressers  and  attendants,,  bringing  a  first-rate  supply  of  necessities 
and  comforts  for  the  wounded,  which  they  handed  over  to  the 
Commission. 

"  Twice  a  day  the  trains  left  for  Baltimore  or  Harrisburg,  and 
twice  a  day  we  fed  all  the  wounded  who  arrived  for  them.  Things 
were  systematized  now,  and  the  men  came  down  in  long  ambu 
lance  trains  to  the  cars ;  baggage-cars  they  were,  filled  with  straw 
for  the  wounded  to  lie  on,  and  broken  open  at  either  end  to  let  in 
the  air.  A  Government  surgeon  was  always  present  to  attend  to 
the  careful  lifting  of  the  soldiers  from  ambulance  to  car.  Many 
of  the  men  could  get  along  very  nicely,  holding  one  foot  up,  and 
taking  great  jumps  on  their  crutches.  The  latter  were  a  great 
comfort;  we  had  a  nice  supply  at  the  Lodge;  and  they  traveled 
up  and  down  from  the  tents  to  the  cars  daily.  Only  occasionally 
did  we  dare  let  a  pair  go  on  with  some  very  lame  soldier,  who 
begged  for  them;  we  needed  them  to  help  the  new  arrivals  each 
day,  and  trusted  to  the  men  being  supplied  at  the  hospitals  at  the 
journey's  end.  Pads  and  crutches  are  a  standing  want, — pads 
particularly.  We  manufactured  them  out  of  the  rags  we  had, 
stuffed  with  sawdust  from  brandy-boxes;  and  with  half  a  sheet 
and  some  soft  straw,  Mrs.  -  —  made  a  poor  dying  boy  as  easy 
as  his  sufferings  would  permit.  Poor  young  fellow,  he  was  so 
grateful  to  her  for  washing  and  feeding  and  comforting  him.  He 
was  too  ill  to  bear  the  journey,  and  went  from  our  tent  to  the 
church  hospital,  and  from  the  church  to  his  grave,  which  would 
have  been  coffinless  but  for  the  care  of ;  for  the  Quarter 
master's  Department  was  overtaxed,  and  for  many  days  our  dead 
were  simply  wrapped  in  their  blankets  and  put  into  the  earth. 
It  is  a  soldierly  way,  after  all,  of  lying  wrapped  in  the  old  war 
worn  blanket, — the  little  dust  returned  to  dust, 

"  When  the  surgeons  had  the  wounded  all  placed,  with  as 
much  comfort  as  seemed  possible  under  the  circumstances,  on 
board  the  train,  our  detail  of  men  would  go  from  car  to  car,  with 
soup  made  of  beef-stock  or  fresh  meat,  full  of  potatoes,  turnips, 


332 

cabbage,  and  rice,  with  fresh  bread  and  coffee,  and,  when  stimu 
lants  were  needed,  with  ale,  milk-punch,  or  brandy.  Water-pails 
were  in  great  demand  for  use  in  the  cars  on  the  journey,  and  also 
empty  bottles  to  take  the  place  of  canteens.  All  our  whisky  and 
brandy  bottles  were  washed  and  filled  up  at  the  spring,  and  the 
boys  went  off  carefully  hugging  their  extemporized  canteens, 
from  which  they  would  wet  their  wounds,  or  refresh  themselves 
till  the  journey  ended.  I  do  not  think  that  a  man  of  the  sixteen 
thousand  who  were  transported  during  our  stay,  went  from 
Gettysburg  without  a  good  meal.  Rebels  and  Unionists  together, 
they  all  had  it,  and  were  pleased  and  satisfied.  'Have  you 
friends  in  the  army,  madam?'  a  rebel  soldier,  lying  on  the  floor 
of  the  car,  said  to  me,  as  I  gave  him  some  milk.  'Yes,  my  bro 
ther  is  on 's  staff/  '  I  thought  so,  ma'am.  You  can  always 

tell;  when  people  are  good  to  soldiers  they  are  sure  to  have 
friends  in  the  army .'  '  We  are  rebels,  you  know,  ma'am/  another 
said.  'Do  you  treat  rebels  sof  It  was  strange  to  see  the  good 
brotherly  feeling  come  over  the  soldiers,  our  own  and  the  rebels, 
when  side  by  side  they  lay  in  our  tents.  '  Hullo,  boys !  this  is 
the  pleasantest  way  to  meet,  isn't  it?  We  are  better  friends 
when  we  are  as  close  as  this  than  a  little  farther  off.'  And  then 
they  would  go  over  the  battles  together,  'We  were  here/  and 
'you  were  there/  in  the  friendliest  way. 

"After  each  train  of  cars  daily,  for  the  three  weeks  we  were  in 
Gettysburg,  trains  of  ambulances  arrived  too  late — men  who  must 
spend  the  day  with  us  until  the  five  P.  M.  cars  went,  and  men 
too  late  for  the  five  P.  M.  train,  who  must  spend  the  night  till 
the  ten  A.  M.  cars  went.  All  the  men  who  came  in  this  way, 
under  our  own  immediate  and  particular  attention,  were  given 
the  best  we  had  of  care  and  food.  The  surgeon  in  charge  of  our 
camp,  with  his  most  faithful  dresser  and  attendants,  looked  after 
all  their  wounds,  which  were  often  in  a  shocking  state,  particu 
larly  among  the  rebels.  Every  evening  and  morning  they  were 
dressed.  Often  the  men  would  say,  'That  feels  good.  I  have  n't 


THE    MISSES    WOOLSEY.  333 

had  my  wound  so  well  dressed  since  I  was  hurt.  Something 
cool  to  drink  is  the  first  thing  asked  for  after  the  long,  dusty 
drive ;  and  pailfuls  of  tamarinds  and  water,  'a  beautiful  drink,' 
the  men  used  to  say,  disappeared  rapidly  among  them. 

"  After  the  men's  wounds  were  attended  to,  we  went  round 
giving  them  clean  clothes ;  had  basins  and  soap  and  towels,  and 
followed  these  with  socks,  slippers,  shirts,  drawers,  and  those 
coveted  dressing-gowns.  Such  pride  as  they  felt  in  them  !  com 
paring  colors,  and  smiling  all  over  as  they  lay  in  clean  and  com 
fortable  rows,  ready  for  supper, — i  on  dress  parade/  they  used  to 
say.  And  then  the  milk,  particularly  if  it  were  boiled  and  had 
a  little  whisky  and  sugar,  and  the  bread,  with  butter  on  it,  and 
jelly  on  the  butter :  how  good  it  all  was,  and  how  lucky  we  felt 
ourselves  in  having  the  immense  satisfaction  of  distributing  these 
things,  which  all  of  you,  hard  at  work  in  villages  and  cities,  were 
getting  ready  and  sending  off,  in  faith. 

"  Canandaigua  sent  cologne  with  its  other  supplies,  which 
went  right  to  the  noses  and  hearts  of  the  men.  '  That  is  good, 
now;' — Til  take  some  of  that;' — '  worth  a  penny  a  sniff;'  *  that- 
kinder  gives  one  life;' — and  so  on,  all  round  the  tents,  as  we 
tipped  the  bottles  up  on  the  clean  handkerchiefs  some  one  had 
sent,  and  when  they  were  gone,  over  squares  of  cotton,  on  which 
the  perfume  took  the  place  of  hem, — 'just  as  good,  ma'am.'  We 
varied  our  dinners  with  custard  and  baked  rice  puddings,  scram 
bled  eggs,  codfish  hash,  corn-starch,  and  always  as  much  soft 
bread,  tea,  coffee,  or  milk  as  they  wanted.  Two  Massachusetts 
boys  I  especially  remember  for  the  satisfaction  with  which  they 
ate  their  pudding.  I  carried  a  second  plateful  up  to  the  cars, 
after  they  had  been  put  in,  and  fed  one  of  them  till  he  was  sure 
he  had  had  enough.  Young  fellows  they  were,  lying  side  by 
side,  one  with  a  right  and  one  with  a  left  arm  gone. 

"  The  Gettysburg  women  were  kind  and  faithful  to  the  wounded 
and  their  friends,  and  the  town  was  full  to  overflowing  of  both. 
The  first  day,  when  Mrs. and  I  reached  the  place,  we  lite- 


334  WOMAN'S  WORK  is  THE  CIVIL  WAE. 

rally  begged  our  bread  from  door  to  door;  but  the  kind  woman 
who  at  last  gave  us  dinner  would  take  no  pay  for  it.  '  No, 
ma'am,  I  should  n't  wish  to  have  that  sin  on  my  soul  when  the 
war  is  over.'  She,  as  well  as  others,  had  fed  the  strangers  nock 
ing  into  town  daily,  sometimes  over  fifty  of  them  for  each  meal, 
and  all  for  love  and  nothing  for  reward ;  and  one  night  we  forced 
a  reluctant  confession  from  our  hostess  that  she  was  meaning  to 
sleep  on  the  floor  that  we  might  have  a  bed,  her  whole  house 
being  full.  Of  course  we  could  n't  allow  this  self-sacrifice,  and 
hunted  up  some  other  place  to  stay  in.  We  did  her  no  good, 
however,  for  we  afterwards  found  that  the  bed  was  given  up  that 
night  to  some  other  stranger  who  arrived  late  and  tired:  'An  old 
lady,  you  know;  and  I  couldn't  let  an  old  lady  sleep  on  the 
floor.'  Such  acts  of  kindness  and  self-denial  were  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  women. 

"  Few  good  things  can  be  said  of  the  Gettysburg  farmers,  and 
I  only  use  Scripture  language  in  calling  them  ( evil  beasts.'  One 
of  this  kind  came  creeping  into  our  camp  three  weeks  after  the 
battle.  He  lived  five  miles  only  from  the  town,  and  had  'never 
seen  a  rebel.'  He  heard  we  had  some  of  them,  and  had  come 
down  to  see  them.  *  Boys,'  we  said, — marching  him  into  the  tent 
which  happened  to  be  full  of  rebels  that  day,  waiting  for  the 
train, — 'Boys,  here's  a  man  who  never  saw  a  rebel  in  his  life,  and 
wants  to  look  at  you ;'  and  there  he  stood  with  his  mouth  wide 
open,  and  there  they  lay  in  rows,  laughing  at  him,  stupid  old 

Dutchman.  'And  why  haven't  you  seen  a  rebel?'  Mrs. 

said ;  '  why  didn't  you  take  your  gun  and  help  to  drive  them  out 
of  your  town?'  'A  feller  might'er  got  hit!' — which  reply  was 
quite  too  much  for  the  rebels  ;  they  roared  with  laughter  at  him, 
up  and  down  the  tent. 

"  One  woman  we  saw,  who  was  by  no  means  Dutch,  and  whose 
pluck  helped  to  redeem  the  other  sex.  She  lived  in  a  little  house 
close  up  by  the  field  where  the  hardest  fighting  was  done, — a  red- 
cheeked,  strong,  country  girl.  '  Were  you  frightened  when  the 


THE    MISSES    WOOLSEY.  335 

shells  began  flying?'  'Well,  no.  You  see  we  was  all  a-baking 
bread  around  here  for  the  soldiers,  and  had  our  dough  a-rising. 
The  neighbors  they  ran  into  their  cellars,  but  I  couldn't  leave  my 
bread.  When  the  first  shell  came  in  at  the  window  and  crashed 
through  the  room,  an  officer  came  and  said,  i  You  had  better  get 
out  of  this;'  but  I  told  him  I  could  not  leave  my  bread;  and  1 
stood  working  it  till  the  third  shell  came  through,  and  then  I 
went  down  cellar;  but'  (triumphantly)  'I  left  my  bread  in  the 
oven.'  '  And  why  didn't  you  go  before?'  i Oh,  you  see,  if  I  had, 
the  rebels  would  'a'  come  in  and  daubed  the  dough  all  over  the  place.' 
And  here  she  had  stood,  at  the  risk  of  unwelcome  plums  in  her 
loaves,  while  great  holes  (which  we  saw)  were  made  by  shot  and 
shell  through  and  through  the  room  in  which  she  was  working. 

"  The  streets  of  Gettysburg  were  filled  with  the  battle.  People 
thought  and  talked  of  nothing  else ;  even  the  children  showed 
their  little  spites  by  calling  to  each  other,  '  Here,  you  rebel ;'  and 
mere  scraps  of  boys  amused  themselves  with  percussion-caps  and 
hammers.  Hundreds  of  old  muskets  were  piled  on  the  pave 
ments,  the  men  who  shouldered  them  a  week  before,  lying  under 
ground  now,  or  helping  to  fill  the  long  trains  of  ambulances  on 
their  way  from  the  field.  The  private  houses  of  the  town  were, 
many  of  them,  hospitals ;  the  little  red  flags  hung  from  the  upper 
windows.  Beside  our  own  men  at  the  Lodge,  we  all  had  soldiers 
scattered  about  whom  we  could  help  from  our  supplies ;  and  nice 
little  puddings  and  jellies,  or  an  occasional  chicken,  were  a  great 
treat  to  men  condemned  by  their  wounds  to  stay  in  Gettysburg, 
and  obliged  to  live  on  what  the  empty  town  could  provide. 
There  was  a  colonel  in  a  shoe-shop,  a  captain  just  up  the  street, 
and  a  private  round  the  corner  whose  young  sister  had  possessed 
herself  of  him,  overcoming  the  military  rules  in  some  way,  and 
carrying  him  oif  to  a  little  room,  all  by  himself,  where  I  found 
her  doing  her  best  with  very  little.  She  came  afterward  to  our 
tent  and  got  for  him  clean  clothes,  and  good  food,  and  all  he 
wanted,  and  was  perfectly  happy  in  being  his  cook,  washer- 


336 

woman,  medical  cadet,  and  nurse.  Besides  such  as  these,  we 
occasionally  carried  from  our  supplies  something  to  the  churches, 
which  were  filled  with  sick  and  wounded,  and  where  men  were 
dying, — men  whose  strong  patience  it  was  very  hard  to  bear, — 
dying  with  thoughts  of  the  old  home  far  away,  saying,  as  last 
words,  for  the  women  watching  there  and  waiting  with  a  patience 
equal  in  its  strength,  'Tell  her  I  love  her/ 

"  Late  one  afternoon,  too  late  for  the  cars,  a  train  of  ambulances 
arrived  at  our  Lodge  with  over  one  hundred  wounded  rebels,  to 
be  cared  for  through  the  night.  Only  one  among  them  seemed 
too  weak  and  faint  to  take  anything.  He  was  badly  hurt,  and 
failing.  I  went  to  him  after  his  wound  was  dressed,  and  found 
him  lying  on  his  blanket  stretched  over  the  straw, — a  fair-haired, 
blue-eyed  young  lieutenant,  with  a  face  innocent  enough  for  one 
of  our  own  New  England  boys.  I  could  not  think  of  him  as  a 
rebel ;  he  was  too  near  heaven  for  that.  He  wanted  nothing, — 
had  not  been  willing  to  eat  for  days,  his  comrades  said;  but  I 
coaxed  him  to  try  a  little  milk  gruel,  made  nicely  with  lemon 
and  brandy;  and  one  of  the  satisfactions  of  our  three  weeks  is 
the  remembrance  of  the  empty  cup  I  took  away  afterward,  and 
his  perfect  enjoyment  of  that  supper.  'It  was  so  good,  the  best 
thing  he  had  had  since  he  was  wounded/ — and  he  thanked  me 
so  much,  and  talked  about  his  'good  supper '  for  hours.  Poor 
fellow,  he  had  had  no  care,  and  it  was  a  surprise  and  pleasure  to 
find  himself  thought  of;  so,  in  a  pleased,  childlike  way,  he  talked 
about  it  till  midnight,  the  attendant  told  me,  as  long  as  he  spoke 
of  anything;  for  at  midnight  the  change  came,  and  from  that 
time  he  only  thought  of  the  old  days  before  he  was  a  soldier, 
when  he  sang  hymns  in  his  father's  church.  He  sang  them  now 
again  in  a  clear,  sweet  voice.  e  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me ;'  and 
then  songs  without  words — a  sort  of  low  intoning.  His  father 
was  a  Lutheran  clergyman  in  South  Carolina,  one  of  the  rebels 
told  us  in  the  morning,  when  we  went  into  the  tent,  to  find  him 
sliding  out  of  our  care.  All  day  long  we  watched  him, — some- 


THE    MISSES    WOOLSEY.  337 

times  fighting  his  battles  over,  often  singing  his  Lutheran  chants, 
till,  in  at  the  tent-door,  close  to  which  he  lay,  looked  a  rebel  sol 
dier,  just  arrived  with  other  prisoners.  He  started  when  he  saw 
the  lieutenant,  and  quickly  kneeling  down  by  him,  called, '  Henry ! 
Henry  !'  But  Henry  was  looking  at  some  one  a  great  way  off, 
and  could  not  hear  him.  'Do  you  know  this  soldier?'  we  said. 
'  Oh,  yes,  ma'am ;  and  his  brother  is  wounded  and  a  prisoner,  too, 
in  the  cars,  now.'  Two  or  three  men  started  after  him,  found 
him,  and  half  carried  him  from  the  cars  to  our  tent.  i Henry' 
did  not  know  him,  though;  and  he  threw  himself  down  by  his 
side  on  the  straw,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  day  lay  in  a  sort  of 
apathy,  without  speaking,  except  to  assure  himself  that  he  could 
stay  with  his  brother,  without  the  risk  of  being  separated  from 
his  fellow-prisoners.  And  there  the  brothers  lay,  and  there  we 
strangers  sat  watching  and  listening  to  the  strong,  clear  voice, 
singing,  'Lord,  have  mercy  upon  me.'  The  Lord  had  mercy; 
and  at  sunset  I  put  my  hand  on  the  lieutenant's  heart,  to  find  it- 
still.  All  night  the  brother  lay  close  against  the  coffin,  and  in 
the  morning  went  away  with  his  comrades,  leaving  us  to  bury 
Henry,  having  'confidence;'  but  first  thanking  us  for  what  we 
had  done,  and  giving  us  all  that  he  had  to  show  his  gratitude, — 
the  palmetto  ornament  from  his  brother's  cap  and  a  button  from 
his  coat.  Dr.  W.  read  the  burial  service  that  morning  at  the 

grave,  and  wrote    his  name  on  the   little  head-board: 

'  Lieutenant  Rauch,  Fourteenth  Regiment  South  Carolina  Volun 
teers.' 

"In  the  field  where  we  buried  him,  a  number  of  colored  freed- 
men,  working  for  Government  on  the  railroad,  had  their  camp, 
and  every  night  they  took  their  recreation,  after  the  heavy  work 
of  the  day  was  over,  in  prayer-meetings.  Such  an  'inferior  race,' 
you  know !  We  went  over  one  night  and  listened  for  an  hour, 
while  they  sang,  collected  under  the  fly  of  a  tent,  a  table  in  the 
middle  Avhere  the  leader  sat,  and  benches  all  round  the  sides  for 
the  congregation — men  only, — all  very  black  and  very  earnest. 


338  WOMAN'S  WOEK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

They  prayed  with  all  their  souls,  as  only  black  men  and  slaves 
can ;  for  themselves  and  for  the  dear,  white  people  who  had  come 
over  to  the  meeting;  and  for  'Massa  Lincoln/ for  whom  they 
seemed  to  have  a  reverential  affection, — some  of  them  a  sort  of 
worship,  which  confused  Father  Abraham  and  Massa  Abraham 
in  one  general  cry  for  blessings.  Whatever  else  they  asked  for, 
they  must  have  strength,  and  comfort,  and  blessing  for  i  Massa 
Lincoln/  Very  little  care  was  taken  of  these  poor  men.  Those 
who  were  ill  during  our  stay  were  looked  after  by  one  of  the 
officers  of  the  Commission.  They  were  grateful  for  every  little 

thing.     Mrs. went  into  the  town  and  hunted  up  several 

dozen  bright  handkerchiefs,  hemmed  them,  and  sent  them  over 
to  be  distributed  the  next  night  after  meeting.  They  were  put 
on  the  table  in  the  tent,  and  one  by  one,  the  men  came  up  to 
get  them.  Purple,  and  blue,  and  yellow  the  handkerchiefs  were, 
and  the  desire  of  every  man's  heart  fastened  itself  on  a  yellow 
one ;  they  politely  made  way  for  each  other,  though, — one  man 
standing  back  to  let  another  pass  up  first,  although  he  ran  the 
risk  of  seeing  the  particular  pumpkin-color  that  riveted  his  eyes 
taken  from  before  them.  When  the  distribution  is  over,  each 
man  tied  his  head  up  in  his  handkerchief,  and  they  sang  one 
more  hymn,  keeping  time  all  round,  with  blue  and  purple  and 
yellow  nods,  and  thanking  and  blessing  the  white  people  in  '  their 
basket  and  in  their  store,'  as  much  as  if  the  cotton  handkerchiefs 
had  all  been  gold  leaf.  One  man  came  over  to  our  tent  next 
day,  to  say,  '  Missus,  was  it  you  who  sent  me  that  present  ?  I 
never  had  anything  so  beautiful  in  all  my  life  before ;'  and  he 
only  had  a  blue  one,  too. 

"  Among  our  wounded  soldiers  one  night,  came  an  elderly 
man,  sick,  wounded,  and  crazy,  singing  and  talking  about  home. 
We  did  what  we  could  for  him,  and  pleased  him  greatly  with  a 
present  of  a  red  flannel  shirt,  drawers,  and  red  calico  dressing- 
gown,  all  of  which  he  needed,  and  in  which  he  dressed  himself 
up,  and  then  wrote  a  letter  to  his  wife,  made  it  into  a  little  book 


THE    MISSES    WOOLSEY.  339 

with  gingham  covers,  and  gave  it  to  one  of  the  gentlemen  to  mail 
for  him.  The  next  morning  he  was  sent  on  with  the  company 
from  the  Lodge ;  and  that  evening  two  tired  women  came  into 
our  camp — his  wife  and  sister,  who  hurried  on  from  their  home 
to  meet  him,  arriving  just  too  late.  Fortunately  we  had  the 
queer  little  gingham  book  to  identify  him  by,  and  when  some 
one  said,  "  It  is  the  man,  you  know,  who  screamed  so/  the  poor 
wife  was  certain  about  him.  He  had  been  crazy  before  the  war, 
but  not  for  two  years,  now,  she  said.  He  had  been  fretting  for 
home  since  he  was  hurt ;  and  when  the  doctor  told  him  there  was 
no  chance  of  his  being  sent  there,  he  lost  heart,  and  wrote  to  his 
wife  to  come  and  carry  him  away.  It  seemed  almost  hopeless  for 
two  lone  women,  who  had  never  been  out  of  their  own  little 
town,  to  succeed  in  finding  a  soldier  among  so  many,  sent  in  so 
many  different  directions;  but  we  helped  them  as  we  could,  and 
started  them  on  their  journey  the  next  morning,  back  on  their 
track,  to  use  their  common  sense  and  Yankee  privilege  of  ques 
tioning. 

"A  week  after,  Mrs. had  a  letter  full  of  gratitude,  and 

saying  that  the  husband  was  found  and  secured  for  home.  That 
same  night  we  had  had  in  our  tents  two  fathers,  with  their 
wounded  sons,  and  a  nice  old  German  mother  with  her  boy.  She 
had  come  in  from  Wisconsin,  and  brought  with  her  a  patchwork 
bed-quilt  for  her  son,  thinking  he  might  have  lost  his  blanket ; 
and  there  he  laid  all  covered  up  in  his  quilt,  looking  so  homelike, 
and  feeling  so,  too,  no  doubt,  with  his  good  old  mother  close  at 
his  side.  She  seemed  bright  and  happy, — had  three  sons  in  the 
Army, — one  had  been  killed, — this  one  wounded ;  yet  she  was  so 
pleased  with  the  tents,  and  the  care  she  saw  taken  there  of  the 
soldiers,  that,  while  taking  her  tea  from  a  barrel-head  as  table, 
she  said,  i  Indeed,  if  she  was  a  man,  she'd  be  a  soldier  too,  right 
off/ 

"  For  this  temporary  sheltering  and  feeding  of  all  these  wounded 
men,  Government  could  make  no  provision.  There  was  nothina- 


340 

for  them,  if  too  late  for  the  cars,  except  the  open  field  and  hun 
ger,  in  preparation  for  their  fatiguing  journey.  It  is  expected 
when  the  cars  are  ready  that  the  men  will  be  promptly  sent  to 
meet  them,  and  Government  cannot  provide  for  mistakes  and 
delays;  so  that,  but  for  the  Sanitary  Commission's  Lodge  and 
comfortable  supplies,  for  which  the  wounded  are  indebted  to  the 
hard  workers  at  home,  men  badly  hurt  must  have  suffered  night 
and  day,  while  waiting  for  the  'next  train/  We  had  on  an 
average  sixty  of  such  men  each  night  for  three  weeks  under  our 
care, — sometimes  one  hundred,  sometimes  only  thirty;  and  with 
the  ( delegation,'  and  the  help  of  other  gentlemen  volunteers,  who 
all  worked  devotedly  for  the  men,  the  whole  thing  was  a  great 
success,  and  you  and  all  of  us  can't  help  being  thankful  that  we 
had  a  share,  however  small,  in  making  it  so.  Sixteen  thousand 
good  meals  were  given;  hundreds  of  men  kept  through  the  day, 
and  twelve  hundred  sheltered  at  night,  their  wounds  dressed, 
their  supper  and  breakfast  secured — rebels  and  all.  You  will 
not,  I  am  sure,  regret  that  these  most  wretched  men,  these  'ene 
mies/  'sick  and  in  prison/  were  helped  and  cared  for  through 
your  supplies,  though,  certainly,  they  were  not  in  your  minds 
when  you  packed  your  barrels  and  boxes.  The  clothing  we 
reserved  for  our  own  men,  except  now  and  then  when  a  shivering 
rebel  needed  it;  but  in  feeding  them  we  could  make  no  distinc 
tions. 

"Our  three  weeks  were  coming  to  an  end;  the  work  of  trans 
porting  the  wounded  was  nearly  over;  twice  daily  we  had  filled 
and  emptied  our  tents,  and  twice  fed  the  trains  before  the  long 
journey.  The  men  came  in  slowly  at  the  last, — a  lieutenant,  all 
the  way  from  Oregon,  being  among  the  very  latest.  He  came 
down  from  the  corps  hospitals  (now  greatly  improved),  having 
lost  one  foot,  poor  fellow,  dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  the  Commission's 
cotton  clothes,  just  as  bright  and  as  cheerful  as  the  first  man,  and 
all  the  men  that  we  received  had  been.  We  never  heard  a  com 
plaint.  'Would  he  like  a  little  nice  soup?'  'Well,  no,  thank 


THE    MISSES    WOOLSEY.  341 

you,  ma'am;'  hesitating  and  polite.  'You  have  a  long  ride 
before  you,  and  had  better  take  a  little;  I'll  just  bring  it  and  you 
can  try.'  So  the  good,  thick  soup  came.  He  took  a  very  little 
in  the  spoon  to  please  me,  and  afterwards  the  whole  cupful  to 
please  himself.  He  'did  not  think  it  was  this  kind  of  soup  I 
meant.  He  had  some  in  camp,  and  did  not  think  he  cared  for 
any  more;  his  "cook"  was  a  very  small  boy,  though,  who  just 
put  some  meat  in  a  little  water  and  stirred  it  round,'  '  Would 
yon  like  a  handkerchief?'  and  I  produced  our  last  one,  with  a 
hem  and  cologne  too.  'Oh,  yes;  that  is  what  I  need;  I  have 
lost  mine,  and  was  just  borrowing  this  gentleman's.'  So  the 
lieutenant,  the  last  man,  was  made  comfortable,  thanks  to  all  of 
you,  though  he  had  but  one  foot  to  carry  him  on  his  long  journey 
home. 

"Four  thousand  soldiers,  too  badly  hurt  to  be  moved,  were 
still  left  in  Gettysburg,  cared  for  kindly  and  well  at  the  large, 
new  Government  hospital,  with  a  Sanitary  Commission  attach 
ment. 

"  Our  work  was  over,  our  tents  were  struck,  and  we  came  away 
after  a  flourish  of  trumpets  from  two  military  bands  who  filed 
down  to  our  door,  and  gave  us  a  farewell  '  Red,  white,  and  blue.' " 

One  who  knows  Miss  Woolsey  well  says  of  her,  "  Her  sense, 
energy,  lightness,  and  quickness  of  action;  her  thorough  know 
ledge  of  the  work,  her  amazing  yet  simple  resources,  her  shy 
humility  which  made  her  regard  her  own  work  with  impatience, 
almost  with  contempt — all  this  and  much  else  make  her  memory 
a  source  of  strength  and  tenderness  which  nothing  can  take  away." 
Elsewhere,  the  same  writer  adds,  "  Strength  and  sweetness,  sound 
practical  sense,  deep  humility,  merriment,  playfulness,  a  most 
ready  wit,  an  educated  intelligence — were  among  her  character 
istics.  Her  work  I  consider  to  have  been  better  than  any  which 
I  saw  in  the  service.  It  was  thorough,  but  accomplished  rapidly. 
She  saw  a  need  before  others  saw  it,  and  she  supplied  it  often  by 
some  ingenious  contrivance  which  answered  every  purpose,  though 


342 

no  one  but  Georgy  would  ever  have  dreamt  of  it.  Her  pity  for 
the  sufferings  of  the  men  was  something  pathetic  in  itself,  but  it 
was  never  morbid,  never  unwise,  never  derived  from  her  own 
shock  at  the  sight,  always  practical  and  healthy/7  Miss  Wool- 
sey  remained  in  the  service  through  the  war,  a  part  of  the  time  in 
charge  of  hospitals,  but  during  Grant's  great  campaign  of  the  spring, 
summer,  and  autumn  of  1864,  she  was  most  effectively  engaged 
at  the  front,  or  rather  at  the  great  depots  for  the  wounded,  at 
Belle  Plain,  Port  Royal,  Fredericksburg,  White  House,  and  City 
Point.  Miss  Jane  S.  Woolsey,  also  served  in  general  hospitals 
as  lady  superintendent  until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  afterward 
transferred  her  efforts  to  the  work  among  the  Freedmen  at  Rich 
mond,  Virginia. 

A  cousin  of  these  ladies,  Miss  Sarah  C.  Woolsey,  daughter  of 
President  Woolsey  of  Yale  College,  was  also  engaged  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  war  in  hospital  and  other  philanthropic  labors 
for  the  soldiers.  She  was  for  ten  months  assistant  superintendent 
of  the  Portsmouth  Grove  General  Hospital,  and  her  winning 
manners,  her  tender  and  skilful  care  of  the  patients,  and  her 
unwearied  efforts  to  do  them  good,  made  her  a  general  favorite. 


ANNA    MARIA    ROSS. 


NNA  MARIA  ROSS,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was 
a  native  of  Philadelphia,  in  which  city  the  greater  part 
of  her  life  was  spent,  and  in  which,  on  the  22d  of  De 
cember,  1863,  she  passed  to  her  eternal  rest. 

It  was  a  very  beautiful  life  of  which  we  have  now  to  speak — 
a  life  of  earnest  activity  in  every  work  of  benevolence  and  Chris 
tian  kindness.  She  had  gathered  about  her,  in  her  native  city, 
scores  of  devoted  friends,  who  loved  her  in  life,  and  mourned  her 
in  death  with  the  sentiments  of  a  true  bereavement. 

Miss  Ross  was  patriotic  by  inheritance,  as  well  as  through  per 
sonal  loyalty.  Her  maternal  relatives  were  largely  identified 
with  the  war  of  American  Independence.  Her  mother's  uncle, 
Jacob  Root,  held  a  captain's  commission  in  the  Continental  army, 
and  it  is  related  of  her  great  grandmother  that  she  served  volun 
tarily  as  a  moulder  in  an  establishment  where  bullets  were -manu 
factured  to  be  used  in  the  cause  of  freedom. 

Her  mother's  name  was  Mary  Root,  a  native  of  Chester  County, 
Pennsylvania.  Her  father  was  William  Ross,  who  emigrated 
early  in  life  from  the  county  of  Deny,  Ireland.  There  may  have 
been  nothing  in  her  early  manifestations  of  character  to  foreshow 
the  noble  womanhood  into  which  she  grew.  There  remains,  at 
any  rate,  a  small  record  of  her  earliest  years.  The  wonderful 
powers  which  she  developed  in  mature  womanhood  possess  a 
greater  interest  for  those  who  know  her  chiefly  in  connection  with 


343 


344 

the  labors  which  gave  her  so  just  a  claim  to  the  title  of  "The 
Soldier's  Friend." 

Endowed  by  nature  with  great  vigor  of  mind  and  uncommon 
activity  and  energy,  of  striking  and  commanding  personal  appear 
ance  and  pleasing  address,  she  had  been,  before  the  war,  remarkably 
successful  in  the  prosecution  of  those  works  of  charity  and  benevo 
lence  which  made  her  life  a  blessing  to  mankind.  Well-known 
to  the  public-spirited  and  humane  of  her  native  city,  her  claims  to 
attention  were  fully  recognized,  and  her  appeals  in  behalf  of  the 
needy  and  suffering  were  never  allowed  to  pass  unheeded. 

"  I  have  little  hope  of  success,"  she  said  once  to  her  companion, 
in  going  upon  an  errand  of  mercy :  "yet  we  may  get  one  hundred 
dollars.  The  lady  we  are  about  to  visit  is  not  liberal,  though 
wealthy.  Let  us  pray  that  her  heart  may  be  opened  to  us.  Many 
of  my  most  earnest  prayers  have  been  made  while  hurrying  along 
the  street  on  such  errands  as  this."  The  lady  gave  her  three 
hundred  dollars. 

On  one  occasion  she  was  at  the  house  of  a  friend,  when  a 
family  was  incidentally  mentioned  as  being  in  great  poverty  and 
affliction.  The  father  had  been  attacked  with  what  is  known  as 
"black  small  pox,"  and  was  quite  destitute  of  the  comforts  and 
attentions  which  his  situation  required,  some  of  the  members  of 
his  own  family  having  left  the  house  from  fear  of  the  infection. 
The  quick  sympathies  of  Miss  Ross  readily  responded  to  this  tale 
of  want  and  neglect.  "  While  God  gives  me  health  and  strength," 
she  earnestly  exclaimed,  "no  man  shall  thus  suffer!"  With  no 
more  delay  than  was  required  to  place  in  a  basket  articles  of 
necessity  and  comfort  she  hastened  to  the  miserable  dwelling;  nor 
did  she  leave  the  poor  sufferer  until  he  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
human  aid  forever.  And  her  thoughtful  care  ceased  not  even 
here.  From  her  own  friends  she  sought  and  obtained  the  means 
of  giving  him  a  respectable  burial. 

The  lady  to  whom  the  writer  is  indebted  for  the  above  incident, 
relates  that  on  the  day  when  all  that  was  mortal  of  Anna  Maria 


ANNA   MARIA    ROSS.  345 

Ross  was  consigned  to  its  kindred  dust,  as  she  was  entering  a 
street-car,  the  conductor  remarked,  "  I  suppose  you  have  been  to 
see  the  last  of  Miss  Ross."  Upon  her  replying  in  the  affirmative, 
he  added,  while  tears  flowed  down  his  cheeks,  "I  did  not  know 
her,  but  she  watched  over  my  wife  for  four  weeks  when  she  had 
a  terrible  sickness.  She  was  almost  an  entire  stranger  to  her 
when  she  came  and  offered  her  assistance." 

Her  work  for  the  soldier  was  chiefly  performed  in  connection 
with  the  institution  known  as  the  Cooper  Shop  Hospital,  a  branch 
of  the  famous  Cooper  Shop  Refreshment  Saloon,  for  Soldiers.  Miss 
Ross  was  appointed  Lady  Principal  of  this  Institution,  and  devoted 
herself  to  it  with  an  energy  that  never  wearied.  Day  and  night 
she  was  at  her  post — watching  while  others  slept,  dressing  with 
her  own  hands  the  most  loathsome  wounds ;  winning  the  love  and 
admiration  of  all  with  whom  she  was  associated.  Pier  tasks  were 
arduous,  her  sympathies  were  drawn  upon  to  the  utmost,  her  re 
sponsibilities  were  great. 

One  who  knew  her  well,  and  often  saw  her  Avithin  the  walls 
of  the  "  Cooper  Shop,"  thus  gives  us  some  incidents  of  her  work 
there.  The  benevolence  expressed  in  her  glowing  countenance, 
and  the  words  of  hearty  welcome  with  which  she  greeted  a  hum 
ble  coadjutor  in  her  loving  labors,  will  never  be  forgotten.  It 
was  impossible  not  to  be  impressed  at  once  by  the  tender  earnest 
ness  with  which  she  engaged  in  her  self-imposed  duties,  and  her 
active  interest  in  everything  which  concerned  the  well-being  of 
those  committed  to  her  charge.  When  they  were  about  to  leave 
her  watchful  care  forever,  a  sister's  thoughtf  illness  was  exhibited 
in  her  preparations  for  their  comfort  and  convenience.  The 
wardrobe  of  the  departing  soldier  was  carefully  inspected,  and 
everything  needful  was  supplied.  It  was  her  custom  also  to  fur 
nish  to  each  one  who  left,  a  sum  of  money,  "that  he  might  have 
something  of  his  own"  to  meet  any  unexpected  necessity  by  the 
way.  And  if  the  donation-box  at  the  entrance  of  the  hospital 
chanced  to  be  empty,  her  own  purse  made  good  the  deficiency. 

44 


346  WOMAN'S  WOEK  IK  THE  CIVIL  WAE. 

The  writer  well  remembers  the  anxious  countenance  with  which 
she  was  met  one  morning  by  Miss  Ross,  when  about  taking  her 
place  for  the  day's  duty.  "  I  am  so  sorry !"  was  her  exclamation. 
"When  C left  for  Virginia  last  night  I  forgot,  in  the  confu 
sion,  to  give  him  money;  and  I  am  afraid  that  he  has  nothing 
of  his  own,  for  he  had  not  received  his  pay.  I  thought  of  it 
after  I  was  in  bed,  and  it  disturbed  my  sleep." 

The  tenderness  of  Miss  Ross's  nature  was  never  more  touch- 

iiigly  exhibited  than  in  the  case  of  Lieutenant  B ,  of  Saratoga, 

New  York.  He  was  brought  to  the  hospital  by  his  father  for  a 
few  days'  rest  before  proceeding  to  his  home.  Mortally  wounded, 
he  failed  so  rapilly  that  he  could  not  be  removed.  During  two 
days  and  nights  of  agonizing  suffering  Miss  Ross  scarcely  left  his 
side,  and  while  she  bathed  his  burning  brow  and  moistened  his 
parched  lips  she  mingled  with  these  tender  offices  words  of  Chris 
tian  hope  and  consolation.  "Call  me  Anna,"  she  said,  "and  tell 
me  all  which  your  heart  prompts  you  to  say."  And  as  life  ebbed 
away  he  poured  into  her  sympathizing  ear  the  confidences  which 
his  mother,  alas !  could  not  receive.  With  tearful  eyes  and  sor 
rowing  heart  this  new-found  friend  watched  by  him  to  the  last — 
then  closed  the  heavy  eyes,  and  smoothed  the  raven  locks,  and 
sent  the  quiet  form,  lovely  even  in  death,  to  her  who  waited  its 
arrival  in  bitter  anguish. 

To  those  who  best  knew  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  it  seems  a 
hopeless  task  to  enumerate  the  instances  of  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  good  of  others  with  which  that  noble  life  was  filled.  It  was 
the  same  tale  again  and  again  repeated.  Alike  the  pain,  the 
anxiety,  the  care;  alike  the  support,  the  encouragement,  the  con 
solation.  No  marvel  was  it  that  the  sinking  soldier,  far  from 
home  and  friends,  mistook  the  gentle  ministry  for  that  which 
marks  earth's  strongest  tie,  and  at  her  approach  whispered 
"mother." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  a  tithe  of  the  special 
instances  of  her  kindly  ministrations,  but  there  are  some  that  so 


ANNA    MARIA    ROSS.  347 

vividly  illustrate  prominent  points  in  her  character  that  we  can 
not  refrain  from  the  record.  One  of  these  marked  traits  was  her 
perseverance  in  the  accomplishment  of  any  plan  for  the  good  of 
her  charges,  and  may  well  be  mentioned  here. 

For  a  long  time  an  Eastern  soldier,  named  D ,  was  an 

inmate  of  her  hospital,  and  as,  though  improving,  his  recovery 
was  slow,  and  it  seemed  unlikely  that  he  would  soon  be  fit  for 
service  in  the  ranks,  she  got  him  the  appointment  of  hospital 
steward,  and  he  remained  where  he  could  still  have  care. 

After  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  he  relapsed,  and  from  over- work 
and  over- wrought  feeling,  sank  into  almost  hopeless  depression. 
The  death  of  a  beloved  child,  and  an  intense  passionate  longing 
to  revisit  his  home  and  family,  aided  this  deep  grief,  and  gave  it 
a  force  and  power  that  threatened  to  deprive  him  of  life  or  reason. 
It  was  at  this  crisis  that  with  her  accustomed  energy  Miss  Ross 
directed  all  her  efforts  toward  restoring  him  to  his  family.  After 
the  preliminary  steps  had  been  taken  she  applied  to  the  captain 
of  a  Boston  steamer,  but  he  refused  to  receive  a  sick  passenger  on 
account  of  the  want  of  suitable  accommodations.  The  case  was 
urgent.  He  must  go  or  die.  "  There  is  no  room,"  repeated  the 
captain. 

"Give  him  a  place  upon  the  floor/'  was  the  rejoinder,  "and  I 
will  furnish  everything  needful."  "But  a  sick  man  cannot  have 
proper  attendance  under  such  circumstances,"  persisted  the  cap 
tain.  "I  will  go  with  him  if  necessary,"  she  replied,  "and  will 
take  the  entire  charge  of  his  comfort."  "Miss  Ross,  I  am  sorry 
to  refuse  you,  but  I  cannot  comply  with  your  request.  This  an 
swer  must  be  final." 

What  was  to  be  done?  The  unsuccessful  pleader  covered  her 
face  with  her  hands  for  a  few  moments;  then  raising  her  head 

said,  slowly  and  sadly,  "  Captain ,  I  have  had  many  letters 

from  the  friends  of  New  England  soldiers,  thanking  me  with 
overflowing  hearts  for  restoring  to  them  the  dearly  loved  husband, 
son,  or  brother  while  yet  alive.  From  D.'s  wife  I  shall  receive 


348  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAE. 

no  such  message.  This  is  his  only  chance  of  life.  He  cannot 
bear  the  journey  by  land.  He  must  go  by  water  or  die.  He 
will  die  here — far  from  friends  and  home/'  This  appeal  could 
not  be  resisted.  "  I  will  take  him,  Miss  Ross,"  was  the  answer ; 
"  but  it  must  be  only  upon  the  condition  that  you  will  promise 
not  to  ask  such  a  favor  of  me  again  whatever  the  case  may  be." 
"  Never !"  was  the  quick  reply,  "never  will  I  bind  myself  by  such 
a  promise  while  an  Eastern  soldier  needs  a  friend  or  a  passage  to 
his  home!  You  are  the  first  man  to  whom  I  should  apply." 
"Then  let  him  come  without  a  promise.  You  have  conquered; 
I  will  do  for  him  all  that  can  be  done." 

Could  such  friendship  fail  to  win  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom 
this  inestimable  woman  gave  the  cheerful  service  of  her  life's  best 
days  ?  "  Do  you  want  to  see  Florence  Nightingale  ?"  said  one, 
who  had  not  yet  left  the  nursing  care  which  brought  him  back 
to  life  and  hope,  to  a  companion  whom  he  met.  "  If  you  do, 
just  come  to  our  hospital  and  see  Miss  Ross." 

This  was  the  only  reward  she  craved — a  word  of  thoughtful 
gratitude  from  those  she  sought  to  serve ;  and  in  this  was  lost  all 
remembrance  of  days  of  toil  and  nights  of  weariness.  So  from 
week  to  week  and  from  month  to  month  the  self-consecration 
grew  more  complete — the  self-forgetfulness  more  perfect.  But 
the  life  spent  in  the  service  of  others  was  drawing  near  its  end. 
The  busy  hands  were  soon  to  be  folded,  the  heavy  eyelids  forever 
closed,  the  weary  feet  were  hastening  to  their  rest. 

The  spring  of  1863  found  Miss  Ross  still  occupied  in  the 
weary  round  of  her  labors  at  the  hospital.  She  had  most 
remarkable  strength  and  vigor  of  constitution,  and  that,  with 

&  <T5  /t 

every  other  gift  and  talent  she  possessed  was  unsparingly  used 
for  the  promotion  of  any  good  cause  to  which  she  was  devoted. 
During  this  spring,  in  addition  to  all  her  other  and  engrossing 
labors,  she  was  very  busy  in  promoting  the  interests  of  a  large 
fair  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the  establishment  of  a  perma 
nent  Home  for  discharged  soldiers,  who  were  incapacitated  for 


ANNA    MARIA    ROSS.  349 

active  labor.  She  canvassed  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  also 
traveled  in  different  parts  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  in 
order  to  obtain  assistance  in  this  important  undertaking.  "  Is  it 
not  wrong/'  a  friend  once  asked,  "  that  you  should  do  so  much, 
while  so  many  are  doing  nothing?"  "Oh,  there  are  hundreds 
who  would  gladly  work  as  I  do/'  was  her  reply,  "  but  they  have 
not  my  powers  of  endurance." 

The  fair  in  which  she  was  so  actively  interested  took  place  in 
June,  and  a  large  sum  was  added  to  the  fund  previously  obtained 
for  the  benefit  of  the  "  Soldiers'  Home."  The  work  now  pro 
gressed  rapidly,  and  the  personal  aid  and  influence  of  Miss  Ross 
wrere  exerted  to  forward  it  in  every  possible  way.  Yet  while 
deeply  absorbed  in  the  promotion  of  this  object,  which  was  very 
near  to  her  heart,  she  found  time  to  brighten,  with  characteristic 
tenderness  and  devotion,  the  last  hours  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clay,  the 
aged  and  revered  minister  of  the  ancient  church,  in  which  the 
marriage  of  her  parents  had  taken  place  so  many  years  before. 
With  his  own  family  she  watched  beside  his  bed,  and  with  them 
received  his  parting  blessing. 

The  waning  year  found  the  noble  undertaking,  the  object  of  so 
many  pravcrs  and  the  goal  of  such  ardent  desire,  near  a  prosper 
ous  completion.  A  suitable  building  had  been  obtained,  and 
many  busy  days  were  occupied  in  the  delightful  task  of  furnish 
ing  it.  At  the  close  of  a  day  spent  in  this  manner,  the  friend 
who  had  been  Miss  Ross's  companion  proposed  that  the  remain 
ing  purchases  should  be  deferred  to  another  time,  urging,  in 
addition  to  her  extreme  fatigue,  that  many  of  the  stores  were 
closed.  "  Come  to  South  Street  with  me,"  she  replied.  "  They 
keep  open  there  until  twelve  o'clock,  and  we  may  find  exactly 
what  we  want."  The  long  walk  was  taken,  and  when  the  desired 
articles  were  secured  she  yielded  to  her  friend's  entreaties,  and  at 
a  late  hour  sought  her  home.  As  she  pursued  her  solitary  way 
came  there  no  foreshadowing  of  what  was  to  be?  no  whisper  of 
the  hastening  summons  ?  no  token  of  the  quick  release  ?  Wea- 


350  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

rily  were  the  steps  ascended,  which  echoed  for  the  last  time  the 
familiar  tread.  Slowly  the  door  closed  through  which  she  should 
pass  on  angelic  mission  nevermore.  Was  there  no  warning  ? 

"  I  am  tired/'  she  said,  "  and  so  cold  that  I  feel  as  if  I  never 
could  be  warm  again."  It  was  an  unusual  complaint  for  her 
to  whom  fatigue  had  seemed  almost  unknown  before.  But  it 
was  very  natural  that  exhaustion  should  follow  a  day  of  such 
excessive  labor,  and  she  would  soon  be  refreshed.  So  thought 
those  who  loved  her,  unconscious  of  the  threatening  danger. 
The  heavy  chill  retained  its  grasp,  the  resistless  torpor  of  paraly 
sis  crept  slowly  on,  and  then  complete  insensibility.  In  this 
utter  helplessness,  which  baffled  every  effort  of  human  skill, 
night  wore  away,  and  morning  dawned.  There  was  no  change 
and  days  passed  before  the  veil  was  lifted. 

She  could  not  believe  that  her  work  was  all  done  on  earth  and 
death  near,  "but,"  she  said,  "God  has  willed  it — His  will  be 
clone."  There  Avas  no  apparent  mental  struggle.  Well  she  knew 
that  she  had  done  her  uttermost,  and  that  God  was  capable  of 
placing  in  the  field  other  laborers,  and  perhaps  better  ones  than 
she ;  and  she  uttered  no  meaningless  words  when,  without  a  mur 
mur,  she  resigned  herself  to  His  will. 

A  few  words  of  fond  farewell,  she  calmly  spoke  to  the  weeping 
friends  about  her.  Then  with  fainter  and  fainter  breathing,  life 
fled  so  gently  that  they  knew  not  when  the  shadowy  vale  was 
passed.  So,  silently  and  peacefully  the  Death-angel  had  visited 
her,  and  upon  her  features  lay  the  calm  loveliness  of  perfect  rest. 

On  the  22d  of  December,  1863,  the  friends,  and  sharers  of  her 
labors  were  assembled  at  the  dedication  of  the  Soldiers'  Home. 
It  was  the  crowning  work  of  her  life,  and  it  was  completed ;  and 
thus,  at  the  same  hour,  this  earthly  crown  was  laid  upon  her  dy 
ing  brow,  and  the  freed  soul  put  on  the  crown  of  a  glorious  im 
mortality. 

Her  funeral  was  attended  by  a  sorrowing  multitude,  all  of 
whom  had  known,  and  many,  yea,  most  of  whom,  had  been  blest 


ANXA    MARIA    ROSS.  351 

by  her  labors.  For  even  they  are  blest  to  whom  it  has  happened 
to  know  and  appreciate  a  character  like  hers. 

They  made  her  a  tomb,  in  the  beautiful  Monument  Cemetery, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  a  stately  cedar.  Nature  itself,  in  the  deso 
lation  of  advancing  winter,  seemed  to  join  in  the  lament  that 
such  loveliness  and  worth  was  lost  to  earth. 

But  with  returning  summer,  the  branches  of  her  overshadow 
ing  cedar  are  melodious  with  the  song  of  birds,  while  roses  and 
many  flowering  plants  scatter  fragrance  to  every  passing  breeze 
as  their  petals  falling  hide  the  dark  soil  beneath.  The  hands  of 
friends  have  planted  these — an  odorous  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
her  they  loved  and  mourn,  and  have  raised  beside,  in  the  endur 
ing  marble,  a  more  lasting  testimony  of  her  worth. 

The  tomb  is  of  pure  white  marble,  surmounted  by  a  tablet  of  the 
same,  which  in  alto  relievo,  represents  a  female  figure  ministering 
to  a  soldier,  who  lies  upon  a  couch.  Beneath,  is  this  inscription: 

ERECTED    BY    HER    FRIENDS 
IN    MEMORY    OF 

ANNA  M.  ROSS, 
DIED,  DECEMBER  22,  1863. 

Her  piety  was  fruitful  of  good  works.  The  friendless  child,  the 
fugitive  slave,  and  the  victim  of  intemperance  were  ever  objects 
of  her  tenderest  solicitude. 

When  civil  war  disclosed  its  horrors,  she  dedicated  her  life  to 
the  sick  and  Avounded  soldiers  of  her  country,  and  died  a  martyr 
to  Humanity  and  Patriotism. 

So  closes  the  brief  and  imperfect  record  of  a  beautiful  life; 
but  the  light  of  its  lovely  example  yet  remains. 


MRS.    G.    T.    M.    DAVIS. 


MONG  the  large  number  of  the  ladies  of  New  York 
city  who  distinguished  themselves  for  their  devotion 
to  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers  of  our  army,  of  whom  so 
many  in  all  forms  of  suffering  were  brought  there 
during  the  war,  it  seems  almost  invidious  to  select  any  individ 
ual.  But  it  is  perhaps  less  so  in  the  case  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  than  of  many  others,  since  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  war  till  long  after  its  close,  she  quietly  sacrificed  the  ease  and 
luxury  of  her  life  to  devote  herself  untiringly,  and  almost  with 
out  respite,  to  the  duties  thus  voluntarily  assumed  and  faithfully 
performed. 

Mrs.  Davis  is  the  wife  of  Colonel  G.  T.  M.  Davis,  who  served 
with  great  distinction  in  the  Mexican  war,  but  who,  having 
entered  into  commercial  pursuits,  is  not  at  present  connected  with 
the  army.  Her  maiden  name  was  Pomeroy,  and  she  is  a  native 
of  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts.  Her  brother,  Robert  Pomeroy, 
Esq.,  of  that  town,  a  wealthy  manufacturer,  was  noted  for  his 
liberal  benefactions  during  the  war,  and  with  all  his  family 
omitted  no  occasion  of  showing  his  devotion  to  his  country  and 
to  its  wounded  and  suffering  defenders.  His  daughter,  near  the 
close  of  the  war,  became  the  wife  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
young  officers  in  the  service,  General  Bartlett. 

General  Bartlett,  at  twenty-two,  and  fresh  from  the  classic 
precincts  of  Harvard,  entered  the  service  as  a  private.  He  rose 
rapidly  through  the  genius  and  force  of  his  commanding  charac- 

352 


MRS.  G.  T.  M.  DAVIS.  353 

ter.  He  lost  a  leg,  we  believe  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  left  the 
service,  until  partially  recovered,  when  he  again  re-entered  it  as 
the  Colonel  of  the  Forty-ninth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  which 
was  raised  in  Berkshire  County.  For  months  he  rode  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment  with  his  crutch  attached  to  the  back  of  his 
saddle.  It  was  after  his  return  from  the  South-west,  (where  the 
gallant  Forty-ninth  distinguished  itself  at  Port  Hudson,  Plain's 
Stone,  and  other  hard-won  fields),  with  a  maimed  arm,  that  he 
was  rewarded  with  the  hand  of  one  of  Berkshire's  fairest  daugh 
ters,  a  member  of  this  patriotic  family.  Several  other  young 
men,  members  of  the  same  family,  have  also  greatly  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  service  of  their  country 

At  the  very  outset  of  the  war,  or  as  soon  as  the  sick  among 
the  volunteers  who  were  pouring  into  New  York,  demanded 
relief,  Mrs.  Davis  began  to  devote  time  and  care  to  them.  Daily 
leaving  her  elegant  home,  she  sought  out  and  ministered  to  her 
country's  suffering  defenders,  at  the  various  temporary  barracks 
erected  for  their  accommodation. 

When  the  Park  Barracks  Ladies'  Association  was  formed,  she 
became  its  Secretary,  and  so  continued  for  a  long  period,  most 
faithful  and  energetic  in  her  ministrations.  This  association 
included  in  its  work  the  Hospital  on  Bedloe's  Island,  and  Mrs. 
Davis  was  one  of  the  first  who  commenced  making  regular  visits 
there. 

Most  of  the  men  brought  to  Bedloe's  Island  in  the  earlier  part 
of  the  war,  were  sick  with  the  various  diseases  consequent  upon 
the  unaccustomed  climate  and  the  unwonted  exposure  they  had 
encountered.  They  needed  a  very  careful  and  regular  diet,  one 
which  the  army  rations,  though  perhaps  suitable  and  sufficient  for 
men  in  health,  were  unable  to  supply.  It  was  but  natural  that 
these  ladies,  full  of  the  warm  sympathy  which  prompted  them  to 
the  unusual  tasks  they  had  undertaken,  should  shrink  from  seeing 
a  half-convalescent  fever  patient  fed  with  hard-bread  and  salt 
pork,  or  the  greasy  soups  of  which  pork  was  the  basis.  They 


354  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

brought  delicacies,  often  prepared  by  their  own  hands  or  in  their 
own  kitchens,  and  were  undoubtedly  injudicious,  sometimes,  in 
their  administration.  Out  of  this  arose  the  newspaper  contro 
versy  between  the  public  and  the  surgeons  in  charge,  at  Bedloe's 
Island,  which  is  probably  yet  fresh  in  many  minds.  It  was  char 
acterized  by  a  good  deal  of  acrimony. 

Mrs.  Davis  avers  that  neither  she  nor  her  friends  gave  food  to 
the  patients  without  the  consent  of  the  physicians.  The  affair 
terminated,  as  is  well-known,  by  the  removal  of  the  surgeon  in 
charge. 

The  Ladies  Park  Barracks'  Association  was,  as  a  body,  opposed 
to  extending  its  benefactions  beyond  New  York  and  its  immedi 
ate  vicinity.  Mrs.  Davis  was  of  a  different  opinion,  and  was, 
beside,  not  altogether  pleased  with  the  management  of  the  asso 
ciation.  She  therefore,  after  a  time,  relinquished  her  official  con 
nection  with  it,  though  never  for  one  instant  relaxing  her  efforts 
for  the  same  general  object. 

For  a  long  series  of  months  Mrs.  Davis  repaired  almost  daily 
to  the  large  General  Hospital  at  David's  Island,  where  thousands 
of  sick  and  wounded  men  were  sometimes  congregated.  Here 
she  and  her  chief  associates,  Mrs.  Chapman,  and  Miss  Morris, 
established  the  most  amicable  relations  with  the  surgeon  in  charge, 
Dr.  McDougall,  and  were  welcomed  by  him,  as  valued  coadjutors. 

On  the  opening  of  the  Soldiers'  Rest,  in  Howard  Street,  an 
association  of  ladies  was  formed  to  aid  in  administering  to  the 
comfort  of  the  poor  fellows  who  tarried  there  during  their  transit 
through  the  city,  or  were  received  in  the  well-conducted  hospital 
connected  with  the  institution.  Of  this  association  Mrs.  Davis 
was  the  Secretary,  during  the  whole  term  of  its  existence. 

This  association,  as  well  as  the  institution  itself,  was  admirably 
conducted,  and  perhaps  performed  as  much  real  and  beneficial 
work  as  any  other  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York.  It  was  con 
tinued  in  existence  till  several  months  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

Besides  her  visits  at  David's  Island  and  Howard  Street,  which 


MES.  G.  T.  M.  DAVIS.  355 

were  most  assiduous,  Mrs.  Davis  as  often  as  possible  visited  the 
Central  Park,  or  Mount  St.  Vincent  Hospital,  the  Ladies'  Home 
Hospital,  at  the  corner  of  Lexington  Avenue  and  Fifty-first 
Street,  and  the  Xew  England  Rooms  in  Broadway.  At  all  of 
these  she  was  welcomed,  and  her  efforts  most  gratefully  received. 
Seldom  indeed  did  a  day  pass,  during  the  long  four  years  of  the 
war,  and  for  months  after  the  suspension  of  hostilities,  that  her 
kind  face  was  not  seen  in  one  or  more  of  the  hospitals. 

Her  social  position,  as  well  as  her  genuine  dignity  of  manners 
enforced  the  respect  of  all  the  officials,  and  Avon  their  regard. 
Her  untiring  devotion  and  kindness  earned  her  the  almost  wor 
shipping  affection  of  the  thousands  of  sufferers  to  whom  she 
ministered. 

Letters  still  reach  her,  at  intervals,  from  the  men  who  owe, 
perhaps  life,  certainly  relief  and  comfort  to  her  cherishing  care. 
Ignorant  men,  they  may  be,  little  accustomed  to  the  amenities  of 
life,  capable  only  of  composing  the  strangely-worded,  ill-spelled 
letters  they  send,  but  the  gratitude  they  express  is  so  abundant 
and  so  genuine,  that  one  overlooks  the  uncouthness  of  manner, 
and  the  unattractive  appearance  of  the  epistles.  And  seldom 
does  she  travel  but  at  the  most  unexpected  points  scarred  and 
maimed  veterans  present  themselves  before  her,  and  with  the 
deepest  respect  beg  the  privilege  of  once  more  offering  their 
thanks.  She  may  have  forgotten  the  faces,  that  in  the  great  pro 
cession  of  suffering  flitted  briefly  before  her,  but  they  will  never 
forget  the  face  that  bent  above  their  couch  of  pain. 

The  native  county  of  Mrs.  Davis,  Berkshire,  Massachusetts, 
Avas  famous  for  the  abundance  and  excellence  of  the  supplies  it 
continually  sent  forward  to  the  sick  and  suffering  soldiers.  The 
appeals  of  Mrs.  Davis  to  the  women  of  Berkshire,  were  numerous 
and  always  effective.  Her  letters  Avere  exceedingly  graphic  and 
spirited,  and  were  published  frequently  in  the  county  papers, 
reaching  not  only  the  ATillages  in  the  teeming  valleys  but  the 
scattered  farm-houses  among  the  hills;  and  they  continually  gave 


356  WOMAN'S  WOI?K  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAH. 

impulse  and  direction  to  the  noble  charities  of  those  women,  who, 
in  their  quiet  homes,  had  already  sent  forth  their  dearest  and 
best  to  the  service  of  the  country. 

Mrs.  Davis  for  herself  disclaims  all  merit,  but  has  no  word  of 
praise  too  much  for  these.  They  made  the  real  sacrifices,  these 
women  who  from  their  small  means  gave  so  much,  who  rose 
before  the  sun,  alike  in  the  cold  of  winter  and  the  heat  of  sum 
mer,  who  performed  the  most  menial  tasks  and  the  hardest  toil 
that  they  might  save  for  the  soldiers,  that  they  might  gain  time 
to  work  for  the  soldiers.  It  was  they  who  gave  much,  not  the 
lady  who  laid  aside  only  the  soft  pleasures  of  a  luxurious  life, 
whose  well-trained  servants  left  no  task  unfinished  during  her 
absence,  whose  bath,  and  dress,  and  dinner  were  always  ready  on 
her  return  from  the  tour  of  visiting,  who  gave  only  what  was  not 
missed  from  her  abundance,  and  made  no  sacrifice  but  that  of  her 
personal  ease.  So  speaks  Mrs.  Davis,  in  noble  self-depreciation 
of  herself  and  her  class.  There  is  a  variety  of  gifts.  God  and 
her  country  will  decide  whose  work  was  most  worthy. 


)  JLV  L 


MISS    MARY    J.    SAFFORD. 


ISS  MAKY  J.  SAFFORD,  is  a  native  of  New  Eng 
land,  having  been  born  in  Vermont,  though  her  pa 
rents,  very  worthy  people,  early  emigrated  to  the  West, 
and  settled  in  Northern  Illinois,  in  Avhich  State  she  has 
since  resided,  making  her  home  most  of  the  time  in  Crete,  Joliet, 
Shawneetown  and  Cairo  ;  the  last  named  place  is  her  present 
home. 

Miss  Safford,  early  in  life,  evinced  an  unusual  thirst  for  know 
ledge,  and  gave  evidence  of  an  intellect  of  a  superior  order;  and, 
with  an  energy  and  zeal  seldom  known,  she  devoted  every  mo 
ment  to  the  attainment  of  an  education,  the  cultivation  of  her 
mind — and  the  gaining  of  such  information  as  the  means  at  hand 
afforded.  Her  love  of  the  beautiful  and  good  was  at  once 
marked,  and  every  opportunity  made  use  of  to  satisfy  her  desires 
in  these  directions. 

Her  good  deeds  date  from  the  days  of  her  childhood,  and  the 
remarkably  high  sense  of  duty  of  which  she  is  possessed,  makes 
her  continually  in  search  of  some  object  of  charity  upon  which 
to  exert  her  beneficence  and  kindly  care. 

The  commencement  of  the  late  rebellion,  found  her  a  resident 
of  Cairo,  Illinois,  and  immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Union 
soldiers  there,  she  set  about  organizing  and  establishing  tempo 
rary  hospitals  throughout  the  different  regiments,  in  order  that 
the  sick  might  have  immediate  and  proper  care  and  attention  un 
til  better  and  more  permanent  arrangements  could  be  effected. 

357 


358 

Every  day  found  her  a  visitor  and  a  laborer  among  these  sick 
soldiers,  scores  of  whom  now  bear  fresh  in  their  memories  the 
pdite  form,  and  gentle  and  loving  face  of  that  good  angel  of 
mercy  to  whom  they  are  indebted,  through  her  kind  and  watch 
ful  care  and  nursing,  for  the  lives  they  are  now  enjoying. 

The  morning  after  the  battle  of  Belmont,  found  her, — the  only 
lady — early  on  the  field,  fearlessly  penetrating  far  into  the  ene 
mies'  lines,  with  her  handkerchief  tied  upon  a  little  stick,  and 
waving  above  her  head  as  a  flag  of  truce, — ministering  to  the 
wounded,  which  our  army  had  been  compelled  to  leave  behind, 
to  some  extent — and  many  a  Union  soldier  owes  his  life  to  her  al 
most  superhuman  efforts  on  that  occasion.  She  continued  her 
labors  with  the  wounded  after  their  removal  to  the  hospitals,  sup 
plying  every  want  in  her  power,  and  giving  words  of  comfort 
and  cheer  to  every  heart. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  terrible  battle  of  Pittsburg  Land 
ing  reached  her,  she  gathered  together  a  supply  of  lints  and 
bandages,  and  provided  herself  with  such  stimulants  and  other 
supplies  as  might  be  required,  not  forgetting  a  good  share  of  deli 
cacies,  and  hastened  to  the  scene  of  suffering  and  carnage,  where 
she  toiled  incessantly  day  and  night  in  her  pilgrimage  of  love  and 
mission  of  mercy  for  more  than  three  weeks,  and  then  only  re 
turned  with  a  steamboat-load  of  the  wounded  on  their  way  to 
the  general  hospitals.  She  continued  her  labors  among  the  hos 
pitals  at  Cairo  and  the  neighborhood,  constantly  visiting  from 
one  to  the  other.  Any  day  she  could  be  seen  on  her  errands  of 
mercy  passing  along  the  streets  with  her  little  basket  loaded  with 
delicacies,  or  reading-matter,  or  accompanied  with  an  attendant 
carrying  ample  supplies  to  those  who  had  made  known  to  her 
their  desire  for  some  favorite  dish  or  relish.  On  Christmas  day, 
1861,  there  were  some  twenty-five  regiments  stationed  at  Cairo, 
and  on  that  day  she  visited  all  the  camps,  and  presented  to  every 
sick  soldier  some  little  useful  present  or  token.  The  number  of 
sad  hearts  that  she  made  glad  that  day  no  one  will  ever  know 


MISS    MARY    J.  SAFFORD.  361 

"Every  sick  and  wounded  soldier  in  Cairo  knows  and  loves  her;  and  as  she 
enters  the  ward,  every  pale  face  brightens  at  her  approach.  As  she  passes 
along,  she  inquires  of  each  one  how  he  has  passed  the  night,  if  he  is  well  sup 
plied  with  reading  matter,  and  if  there  is  anything  she  can  do  for  him.  All 
tell  her  their  story  frankly — the  man  old  enough  to  be  her  father,  and  the  boy 
of  fifteen,  who  should  be  out  of  the  armv,  and  home  with  his  mother.  One 
thinks  he  would  like  a  baked  apple  if  the  doctor  will  allow  it — another  a  rice 
pudding,  such  as  she  can  make — a  third  a  tumbler  of  buttermilk — a  fourth 
wishes  nothing,  is  discouraged,  thinks  he  shall  die,  and  breaks  down  utterly. 
•in  tears,  and  him  she  soothes  and  encourages,  till  he  resolves  for  her  sake,  to 
keep  up  a  good  heart,  and  hold  on  to  life  a  little  longer — a  fifth  wants  her  to 
write  to  his  wife — a  sixth  is  afraid  to  die,  and  with  him,  and  for  him,  her  de 
vout  spirit  wrestles,  till  light  shines  through  the  dark  valley — a  seventh  desires 
ht_-r  to  sit  by  him  and  read,  and  so  on.  Every  request  is  attended  to,  be  it  ever 
so  trivial,  and  when  she  goes  again,  if  the  doctor  has  sanctioned  the  gratifica 
tion  of  the  sick  man's  wish,  the  buttermilk,  baked  apple,  rice  pudding,  etc.,  are 
carried  along.  Doctors,  nurses,  medical  directors,  and  army  officers,  are  all 
her  true  friends ;  and  so  judicious  and  trustworthy  is  she,  that  the  Chicago 
Sanitary  Commission  have  given  her  carte  blanche,  to  draw  on  their  stores  at 
Cairo  for  anything  she  may  need  in  her  errands  of  mercy.  She  is  performing 
a  noble  work,  and  that  too  in  the  quietest  and  most  unconscious  manner.  Said 
a  sick  soldier  from  the  back  woods,  in  the  splendid  hospital  at  Mound  City, 
who  was  transferred  thither  from  one  of  the  miserable  regimental  hospitals  at 
Cairo,  'I'm  taken  care  of  here  a  heap  better  than  I  was  at  Cairo ;  but  I'd  rather 
be  there  than  here,  for  the  sake  of  seeing  that  little  gal  that  used  to  come  in 
every  day  to  see  us.  I  tell  you  what,  she's  an  angel,  if  there  is  any.'  To  this 
latter  assertion  we  say  amen!  most  heartily." 

Miss  Safford  is  the  sister  of  A.  B.  Safford,  Esq.,  a  well-known 
and  highly  respected  banker  at  Cairo,  Illinois,  and  of  Hon.  A. 
P.  K.  Safford  of  Nevada. 

46 


MRS.    LYDIA    G.    PARRISH. 


T  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  Mrs.  Fairish  was  resid 
ing  at  Media,  Pennsylvania,  near  Philadelphia.  Her 
husband,  Dr.  Joseph  Parrish,  had  charge  of  an  insti 
tution  established  there  for  idiots,  or  those  of  feeble 
mental  capacity,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Mrs.  Parrish,  with 
her  kindly  and  benevolent  instincts,  and  desire  for  usefulness, 
found  there  an  ample  sphere  for  her  efforts,  and  a  welcome  occu 
pation. 

But  as  in  the  case  of  thousands  of  others,  all  over  the  country, 
Mrs.  Parrish  found  the  current  of  her  life  and  its  occupations 
marvellously  changed,  by  the  war.  There  was  a  new  call  for  the 
efforts  of  woman,  such  an  one  as  in  our  country,  or  in  the  world, 
had  never  been  made.  English  women  had  set  the  example  of 
sacrifice  and  work  for  their  countrymen  in  arms,  but  their  efforts 
were  on  a  limited  scale,  and  bore  but  a  very  small  proportion  to 
the  great  uprising  of  loyal  women  in  our  country,  and  their 
varied,  grand  persistent  labors  during  the  late  civil  war  in  America. 
Not  a  class,  or  grade,  or  rank,  of  our  countrywomen,  but  was 
represented  in  this  work.  The  humble  dweller  in  the  fishing 
cabins  on  the  bleak  and  desolate  coast,  the  woman  of  the  prairie, 
and  of  the  cities,  the  wife  and  daughter  of  the  mechanic,  and  the 
farmer,  of  the  merchant,  and  the  professional  man,  the  lady  from 
the  mansion  of  wealth,  proud  perhaps  of  her  old  name,  of  her 
culture  and  refinement — all  met  and  labored  together,  bound  by 
one  common  bond  of  patriotism  and  of  sympathy. 

362 


MRS.  LYDIA    G.  PARELSH.  <3bo 

Mrs.  Parrish  was  one  of  the  first  to  lay  her  talents  and  her 
efforts  upon  the  altar  of  her  country.  In  1861,  and  almost  as 
soon  as  the  need  of  woman's  self-sacrificing  labors  became  appa 
rent,  she  volunteered  her  services  in  behalf  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers  of  the  Union. 

She  visited  Washington  while  the  army  was  yet  at  the  capital 
and  in  its  vicinity.  Her  husband,  Dr.  Parrish,  had  become  con 
nected  with  the  newly  organized  Sanitary  Commission,  and  in 
company  with  him  and  other  gentlemen  similarly  connected,  she 
examined  the  different  forts,  barracks,  camps,  and  hospitals  then 
occupied  by  our  troops,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  their  con 
dition,  and  selecting  a  suitable  sphere  for  the  work  in  which  she 
intended  to  engage. 

On  the  first  day  of  1862,  she  commenced  her  hospital  labors, 
selecting  for  that  purpose  the  Georgetown  Seminary  Hospital. 
She  wrote  letters  for  the  patients,  read  to  them,  and  gave  to  them 
all  the  aid  and  comfort  in  her  power;  and  she  was  thus  enabled 
to  learn  their  real  wants,  and  to  seek  the  means  of  supplying 
them.  Their  needs  were  many,  and  awakened  all  her  sympathies 
and  incited  her  to  ever-renewed  effort.  After  one  clay's  trial  of 
these  new  scenes,  she  wrote  thus  in  her  journal,  January  2,  1862: 
"  My  heart  is  so  oppressed  with  the  sight  of  suffering  I  see  around 
me  that  I  am  almost  unfitted  for  usefulness;  such  sights  are  new 
to  me.  I  feel  the  need  of  some  resource,  where  I  may  apply  for 
delicacies  and  comforts,  which  are  positively  necessary.  The 
Sanitary  Commission  is  rapidly  becoming  the  sinew  of  strength 
for  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  I  will  go  to  their  store-rooms." 
Application  was  made  to  the  Commission,  and  readily  and  promptly 
responded  to.  She  was  authorized  to  draw  from  their  stores,  and 
was  promised  aid  and  protection  from  the  organization. 

Both  camps  and  hospitals  were  rapidly  filling  up ;  the  weather 
was  inclement  and  the  roads  bad,  but  at  the  solicitation  of  other 
earnest  workers,  she  made  occasional  visits  to  camps  in  the  coun 
try,  and  distributed  clothing,  books  and  comforts  of  various 


kinds.  The  "Berdan  Sharp-shooters"  were  encamped  a  few  miles 
from  the  city,  and  needed  immediate  assistance.  She  was  re 
quested  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Commission  to  "visit  the  camps, 
make  observations,  inquire  into  their  needs,  and  report  to  the 
Commission."  She  reached  the  camp  through  almost  impas 
sable  roads,  and  was  received  by  the  officers  with  respect  and 
consideration,  upon  announcing  the  object  of  her  visit.  She 
made  calls  upon  the  men  in  hospitals  and  quarters,  returned  to 
Washington,  reported  "two  hundred  sick,  tents  and  streets  need 
ing  police,  small  pox  breaking  out,  men  discouraged,  and  officers 
unable  to  procure  the  necessary  aid,  that  she  had  distributed  a 
few  jellies  to  the  sick,  checker  boards  to  a  few  of  the  tents,  and 
made  a  requisition  for  supplies  to  meet  the  pressing  want." 
This  little  effort  was  the  means  of  affording  speedy  relief  to 
many  suffering  men.  She  did  not  however  feel  at  liberty  to 
abandon  her  hospital  service,  as  we  learn  from  a  note  in  her 
diary,  that  "this  outside  work  does  not  seem  to  be  my  mission. 
I  have  become  thoroughly  interested  in  my  daily  rounds  at  the 
city  hospitals,  particularly  at  Georgetown  Seminary,  where  my 
heart  and  energies  are  fully  enlisted."  She  passed  several  weeks 
in  this  service,  going  from  bed  to  bed  with  her  little  stores,  which 
she  dispensed  under  instructions  from  the  surgeon,  without  being 
known  by  name  to  the  many  recipients  of  her  attention  and  care. 

The  stores  of  the  Commission  were  not  then  as  ample  as  they 
afterward  became,  when  its  noble  aims  had  become  more  fully 
understood,  and  its  grand  mission  of  benevolence  more  widely 
known,  and  the  sick  and  wounded  were  in  need  of  many  things 
not  obtainable  from  either  this  source  or  the  Government  sup 
plies.  Mrs.  Parrish  determined,  therefore,  to  return  to  her 
northern  home  and  endeavor  to  interest  the  people  of  her  neigh 
borhood  in  the  cause  she  had  so  much  at  heart.  She  found  the 
people  ready  to  respond  liberally  to  her  appeals,  and  soon  returned 
to  Washington  well  satisfied  with  the  success  of  her  efforts. 

She  felt  now  that  her  time,  and  if  need  be  her  life,  must  be 


MRS.  LYDIA    G.  PATIRISH.  365 

consecrated  to  this  work,  and  as  her  diary  expresses  it,  she  "could 
not  remain  at  home,"  and  that  if  she  could  be  of  service  in  her 
new  sphere  of  labor  she  "must  return." 

After  her  brief  absence,  she  re-entered  the  Georgetown  Semi 
nary  Hospital.  Death  had  removed  some  of  her  former  patients, 
others  had  returned  to  duty,  but  others  whom  she  left  there 
welcomed  her  with  enthusiasm  as  the  "orange  lady,"  a  title  she 
had  unconsciously  earned  from  the  fact  that  she  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  distributing  oranges  freely  to  such  of  the  patients  as 
were  allowed  to  have  them. 

The  experience  of  life  often  shows  us  the  importance  of  little 
acts  which  so  frequently  have  an  entirely  disproportionate  result. 
Mrs.  Parrish  found  this  true  in  her  hospital  ministrations.  Little 
gifts  and  attentions  often  opened  the  way  to  the  closed  hearts  of 
those  to  whom  she  ministered,  and  enabled  her  to  reach  the 
innermost  concealed  thought-life  of  her  patients. 

A  soldier  sat  in  his  chair,  wrapped  in  his  blanket,  forlorn,  hag 
gard  from  disease,  sullen,  selfish  in  expression,  and  shrinking 
from  her  notice  as  she  passed  him.  To  her  morning  salutation, 
he  would  return  only  a  cold  recognition.  He  seemed  to  be  brist 
ling  with  defenses  against  encroachment.  And  thus  it  remained 
till  one  day  a  small  gift  penetrated  to  the  very  citadel  of  his 
fortress. 

"  Shall  I  read  to  you  ?"  she  commenced,  kindly,  to  which  he 
replied,  surlily,  "  Don't  want  reading."  "  Shall  I  write  to  any 
of  your  friends?"  she  continued.  "I  hav'n't  any  friends,"  he 
said  in  the  sourest  tone.  Repulsed,  but  not  baffled,  she  presently, 
and  in  the  same  kind  manner,  took  an  orange  from  her  basket, 
and  gently  asked  him  if  he  would  accept  it.  There  was  a  per 
ceptible  brightening  of  his  face,  but  he  only  answered,  in  the 
same  surly  tone,  as  he  held  forth  his  hand,  "Don't  care  if  I  do." 

And  yet,  in  a  little  time,  his  sullen  spirit  yielded — he  spread 
all  his  troubles  before  the  friend  he  had  so  long  repulsed,  and 
opening  his  heart,  showed  that  what  had  seemed  so  selfish  and 


366  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR, 

moody  in  him,  arose  from  a  deep  sense  of  loneliness  and  discour 
agement,  which  disappeared  the  moment  the  orange  had  unlocked 
his  heart,  and  admitted  her  to  his  confidence  and  affection. 

About  six  weeks  she  spent  thus  in  alternate  visits  to  the  vari 
ous  hospitals  in  the  vicinity  of  Washington,  though  her  labors 
were  principally  confined  to  the  Georgetown  Hospital,  where  they 
commenced,  and  where  her  last  visit  was  made. 

As  her  home  duties  called  her  at  that  time,  she  returned 
thither,  briefly.  Soon  after  she  reached  home,  she  received  a  let 
ter  from  one  of  her  former  patients  to  whom  she  had  given  her 
address,  requesting  her  to  call  at  the  Broad  and  Cherry  Street 
Hospital,  in  Philadelphia.  She  did  so,  and  on  entering  the  build 
ing  found  herself  surrounded  by  familiar  faces.  Her  old  Wash 
ington  friends  had  just  arrived,  and  welcomed  her  with  cordial 
greetings.  The  stronger  ones  approached  her  with  outstretched 
hands — some,  too  feeble  to  rise,  covered  their  faces  and  wept  with 
joy — she  was  the  only  person  known  to  them  in  all  the  great 
lonely  city.  The  surgeon-iii-charge,  observing  this  scene,  urged 
her  to  visit  the  hospital  often,  where  her  presence  was  sure  to  do 
the  men  great  good. 

During  her  stay  at  home  she  assisted  in  organizing  a  Ladies' 
Aid  Society  at  Chester.  She  Avas  appointed  Directress  for  the 
township  where  she  resided,  and  as  the  hospital  was  about  to  be 
located  near  Chester,  she,  with  others,  directed  her  attention  to 
preparing  and  furnishing  it.  Sewing-circles  were  formed,  and  as 
a  result  of  the  efforts  made,  by  the  time  the  soldiers  arrived,  a 
plentiful  supply  of  nice  clothing,  delicacies,  etc.,  etc.,  was  ready 
for  them. 

Mrs.  Parrish  united  with  other  women  of  the  vicinity  in  orga 
nizing  a  corps  of  volunteer  nurses,  who  continued  to  perform  their 
duties  with  regularity  and  faithfulness  until  some  time  after,  a 
new  order  dispensed  with  their  services. 

Her  labors  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1862  visibly 


MRS.  LYDIA    G.  PARRiSH.  367 

affected  her  health,  and  were  the  cause  of  a  severe  illness  which 
continued  for  several  weeks. 

Her  health  being  at  length  restored,  she  went  to  Washington, 
spent  a  few  days  in  visiting  the  hospitals  there,  and  then,  with  a 
pass  sent  her  by  Major-General  Simmer,  from  Falmouth,  she; 
joined  Mrs.  Dr.  Harris  and  started,  January  17th,  1863,  for 
Falmouth  via  Acquia  Creek. 

The  army  was  in  motion  and  much  confusion  existed,  but  they 
found  comfortable  quarters  at  the  Lacy  House,  where  they  were 
under  the  protection  of  the  General  and  his  staff. 

Here  Mrs.  Parrish  found  much  to  do,  there  being  a  great  deal 
of  sickness  among  the  troops.  The  weather  was  stormy,  and  the 
movement  of  the  army  was  impeded;  and  though  she  underwent 
much  privation  for  want  of  suitable  food,  and  on  account  of  the 
inclement  season  she  continued  faithful  at  her  post  and  accom 
plished  much  good. 

In  December  of  the  same  year  she  accompanied  her  husband, 
with  the  Medical  Director  of  the  Department  of  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  on  a  tour  of  inspection  to  the  hospitals  of  York- 
town,  Fortress  Monroe,  Norfolk,  Portsmouth,  and  Newbern, 
North  Carolina.  While  at  Old  Point  she  learned  that  there  was 
about  to  be  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  and  desiring  to  render  some 
services  in  this  direction  obtained  permission  from  General 
Butler  to  proceed,  in  company  with  a  friend,  Miss  L.  C.  on  the 
fiag-of-truce  boat  to  City  Point,  witness  the  exchange,  and  render 
such  aid  as  was  possible  to  our  men  on  their  return  passage. 

There  were  five  hundred  Confederate  prisoners  on  board,  who, 
as  her  journal  records,  "sang  our  National  airs,  and  seemed  to  be 
a  jolly  and  happy  healthy  company." 

Our  men  were  in  a  very  different  condition — "sick  and  weary," 
and  needing  the  Sanitary  Commission  supplies,  which  had  been 
brought  for  them,  yet  shouting  with  feeble  voices  their  gladness  at 
being  once  more  under  the  old  flag,  and  in  freedom.  Mrs.  Par- 


368 

rish  fed  and  comforted  these  poor  men  as  best  she  could,  till  the 
steamer  anchored  off  Old  Point  again. 

It  had  been  intended  to  continue  the  exchange  much  further, 
but  a  dispute  arising  concerning  the  treatment  of  negro  prisoners, 
the  operations  of  the  cartel  were  arrested,  and  the  exchange  sus 
pended.  She  found,  therefore,  no  further  need  of  her  services  in 
this  direction,  and  so  returned  home. 

For  many  months  to  come,  as  one  of  the  managers  of  the 
women's  branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  she 
found  ample  employment  in  preparation  for  the  great  Philadel 
phia  Fair,  in  which  arduous  service  she  continued  until  its  close, 
in  July,  1864.  The  exhausting  labors  of  these  months,  and  the 
heat  of  the  weather  during  the  continuance  of  the  Fair,  made  it 
necessary  for  her  to  have  a  respite  for  the  remainder  of  the 
summer. 

It  was  in  the  early  winter  of  this  year  that  she  accompanied 
her  husband  on  a  tour  of  inspection  to  the  hospitals  of  Annapo 
lis,  and  became  so  interested  in  the  condition  of  the  returned 
prisoners,  who  needed  so  much  done  for  them  in  the  way  of  per 
sonal  care,  that  she  gladly  consented,  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
medical  officers  and  agent  of  the  Commission,  to  serve  there  for 
a  season. 

Of  the  usefulness  of  her  work  among  the  prisoners,  testimony 
is  abundant.  What  she  saw,  and  what  she  did,  is  most  touch- 
ingly  set  forth  in  the  following  letters  from  her  pen,  extracted 
from  the  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission : 

AXNAPOLTS,  December  1,  1864. 

"The  steamer  Constitution  arrived  this  morning  with  seven  hundred  and  six 
men,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  whom  were  sent  immediately  to  hospitals, 
being  too  ill  to  enjoy  more  than  the  sight  of  their 'promised  land.'  Many 
indeed,  were  in  a  dying  condition.  Some  had  died  a  short  time  before  the 
arrival  of  the  boat.  Those  who  were  able,  proceeded  to  the  high  ground  above 
the  landing,  and  after  being  divided  into  battalions,  each  was  conducted  in  turn 
to  the  Government  store-house,  under  charge  of  Captain  Davis,  who  furnished 
each  man  with  a  new  suit  of  clothes  recorded  his  name,  regiment  and  company. 


MRS.  LYDIA   G.  PARRISH.  369 

They  then  passed  out  to  another  building  near  by,  where  warm  water,  soap, 
towels,  brushes  and  combs  awaited  them. 

"After  their  ablutions  they  returned  to  the  open  space  in  front  of  the  build 
ing,  to  look  around  and  enjoy  the  realities  of  their  new  life.  Here  they  were 
furnished  with  paper,  envelopes,  sharpened  pencils,  hymn-books  and  tracts  from 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  sat  down  to  communicate  the  glad  news  of  their 
freedom  to  friends  at  home.  In  about  two  hours  most  of  the  men  who  were 
able,  had  sealed  their  letters  and  deposited  them  in  a  large  mail  bag  which  was 
furnished,  and  they  were  soon  sent  on  their  way  to  hundreds  of  anxious  kindred 
and  friends. 

"  Captain  Davis  very  kindly  invited  me  to  accompany  him  to  another  build 
ing,  to  witness  the  administration  of  the  food.  Several  cauldrons  containing 
nice  coffee,  piles  of  new  white  bread,  and  stands  covered  with  meat,  met  the 
eye.  Three  dealers  were  in  attendance.  The  first  gave  to  each  soldier  a  loaf 
of  bread,  the  second  a  slice  of  boiled  meat,  the  third,  dipping  the  new  tin-cup 
from  the  hand  of  each,  into  the  coffee  cauldron,  dealt  out  hot  coffee;  and  how 
it  was  all  received  I  am  unable  to  describe.  The  feeble  ones  reached  out  their 
emaciated  hands  to  receive  gladly,  that  which  they  were  scarcely  able  to  carry, 
and  with  brightening  faces  and  grateful  expressions  went  on  their  way.  The 
stouter  ones  of  the  party,  however,  must  have  their  jokes,  and  such  expressions 
as  the  following  passed  freely  among  them:  'No  stockade  about  this  bread/ 
'This  is  no  confederate  dodge,'  etc.  One  fellow,  whose  skin  was  nearly  black 
from  exposure,  said,  'That's  more  bread  than  I've  seen  for  two  months.'  An 
other,  '  That  settles  a  man's  plate.'  A  bright-eyed  boy  of  eighteen,  whose  young 
spirit  had  not  been  completely  crushed  out  in  rebeldom,  could  not  refrain  from 
a  hurrah,  and  cried  out,  '  Hurrah  for  Uncle  Sam,  hurrah !  No  Confederacy 
about  this  bread.'  One  poor  feeble  fellow,  almost  too  faint  to  hold  his  loaded 
plate,  muttered  out,  'Why,  this  looks  as  if  we  wrere  going  to  live,  there's  no 
grains  of  corn  for  a  man  to  swallow  whole  in  this  loaf.'  Thus  the  words  of 
cheer  and  hope  came  from  almost  every  tongue,  as  they  received  their  rations 
and  walked  away,  each  with  his  'thank  you,  thank  you;'  and  sat  down  upon  the 
ground,  which  forcibly  reminded  me  of  the  Scripture  account  where  the  multi 
tude  sat  down  in  companies,  'and  did  eat  and  were  filled.' 

"  Ambulances  came  afterwards  to  take  those  who  were  unable  to  walk  to 
Camp  Parole,  which  is  two  miles  distant.  One  poor  man,  who  was  making  his 
way  behind  all  the  rest  to  reach  the  ambulance,  thought  it  would  leave  him, 
and  with  a  most  anxious  and  pitiful  expression,  cried  out,  '  Oh,  wait  for  me  !' 
I  think  I  shall  never  forget  his  look  of  distress.  When  he  reached  the  wagon 
he  was  too  feeble  to  step  in,  but  Captain  Davis,  and  Rev.  .1.  A.  Whitaker,  Sani 
tary  Commission  agent,  assisted  him  till  he  was  placed  by  the  side  of  his  com 
panions,  who  were  not  in  much  better  condition  than  himself.  When  he  was 

47 


370 


seated,  he  was  so  thankful,  that  he  wept  like  a  child,  and  those  who  stood  by  tc 
aid  him  could  do  no  less.  Soldiers — brave  soldiers,  officers  and  all,  were 
moved  to  tears.  That  must  be  a  sad  discipline  which  not  only  wastes  the  manly 
form  till  the  sign  of  humanity  is  nearly  obliterated,  but  breaks  the  manly  spirit 
till  it  is  as  tender  as  a  child's." 

"  December  6,  1864. 

"  The  St.  John's  College  Hospital,  is  under  the  management  of  Dr.  Palmer, 
surgeon-in-charge,  and  his  executive  officer,  Dr.  Tremaine.  These  gentlemen 
are  worthy  of  praise  for  the  systematic  arrangement  of  its  cleanly  apartments, 
and  for  the  very  kind  attention  they  bestow  on  their  seven  hundred  patients.  I 
visited  the  hospital  a  day  or  two  ago,  and,  from  what  I  saw  there,  can  assure 
the  relatives  at  borne,  that  the  sufferers  are  well  provided  for.  If  they  could 
only  be  seen,  how  comfortable  they  look  in  their  neat  white-spread  beds,  much 
pain  would  be  spared  them.  One  of  the  surgeons  informed  me  that  all  the  ap 
pliances  are  bestowed  either  by  the  Government  or  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

"  As  I  passed  through  the  different  wards,  I  noticed  that  each  one  was  well 
supplied  with  rocking-chairs,  and  alluding  to  the  great  comfort  they  must  be  to 
the  invalids,  the  surgeon  replied  :  'Yes,  this  is  one  of  the  rich  gifts  made  to  us 
by  the  Sanitary  Commission.'  An  invalid  took  up  the  words  and  remarked : 
'  I  think  it's  likely  that  all  about  me  is  from  the  Sanitary,  for  I  see  my  flannel 
shirt,  this  wrapper,  and  pretty  much  all  I've  got  on,  has  the  stamp  of  the 
United  States  Sanitary  Commission  on  it.' 

"  The  diet  kitchen  is  under  the  care  of  Miss  Rich,  who,  with  her  assistants, 
was  busy  preparing  delicacies  of  various  kinds,  for  two  hundred  patients  who 
were  not  able  to  go  to  the  convalescent's  table.  The  whole  atmosphere  was 
filled  with  the  odor  of  savory  viands.  On  the  stove  I  counted  mutton-chops, 
beef-steaks,  oysters,  chicken,  milk,  tea,  and  other  very  palatable  articles  cook 
ing.  A  man  stood  by  a  table,  buttering  nicely  toasted  bread;  before  him  were 
eight  to  ten  rows  of  the  staff  of  life,  rising  up  like  pillars  of  strength  to  support 
the  inner  man.  The  chief  cook  in  this  department,  informed  me  that  he  but 
tered  twelve  hundred  slices  of  bread,  or  toast  daily,  for  the  diet  patients,  and 
prepared  eighty-six  different  dishes  at  each  meal.  While  in  conversation  with 
this  good-natured  person,  the  butcher  brought  in  a  supply  of  meat,  amounting, 
he  informed  me,  to  one  hundred  pounds  per  day  for  the  so-called  diet  kitchen, 
though  this  did  not  sound  much  like  it.  Before  we  left  this  attractively  clean 
place  the  oysterman  was  met  emptying  his  cans.  Upon  inquiring  how  many 
oysters  he  had,  he  replied,  '  Six  gallons  is  my  every  day  deposit  here ;'  and  oh ! 
they  were  so  inexpressibly  fine-looking,  I  could  not  resist  robbing  some  poor 
fellow  of  one  large  bivalve  to  ascertain  their  quality.  Next  we  were  shown  the 
store-room,  where  there  was  a  good  supply  of  Sanitary  stores,  pads,  pillows, 
shirts,  drawers,  arm-slings,  stock  of  crutches,  fans,  and  other  comforts,  which, 


MRS.  LYDIA   G.  PARRISH.  371 

the  doctor  said,  had  been  deposited  by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission 
Agent.  These  were  useful  articles  that  were  not  furnished  by  the  Govern 
ment. 

"  The  executive  officer  having  given  us  permission  to  find  our  way  among 
the  patients,  we  passed  several  hours  most  profitably  and  interestingly,  con 
versing  with  those  who  had  none  to  cheer  them  for  many  months,  and  writing 
letters  for  those  who  were  too  feeble  to  use  the  pen.  When  the  day  closed  our 
labors  we  felt  like  the  disciple  of  old,  who  said,  '  Master,  it  is  good  to  be  here,' 
and  wished  that  we  might  set  up  our  tabernacle  and  glorify  the  Lord  by  doing 
good  to  the  sick,  the  lame,  and  those  who  had  been  in  prison." 

"December  8,  1864. 

"  No  human  tongue  or  pen  can  ever  describe  the  horrible  suffering  we  have 
witnessed  this  day. 

"  I  was  early  at  the  landing,  eight  and  a-half  o'clock  in  the  morning,  before 
the  boat  threw  out  her  ropes  for  security.  The  first  one  brought  two  hundred 
bad  cases,  which  the  Naval  surgeon  told  me  should  properly  go  to  the  hospital 
near  by,  were  it  not  that  others  were  coming,  every  one  of  whom  was  in  the 
most  wretched  condition  imaginable.  They  were,  therefore,  sent  in  ambulances 
to  Camp  Parole  hospital,  distant  two  miles,  after  being  washed  and  fed  at  the 
barracks. 

aln  a  short  time  another  boat-load  drew  near,  and  oh  !  such  a  scene  of  suffer 
ing  humanity  I  desire  never  to  behold  again.  The  whole  deck  was  a  bed  of 
straw  for  our  exhausted,  starved,  emaciated,  dying  fellow-creatures.  Of  the 
five  hundred  and  fifty  that  left  Savannah,  the  surgeon  informed  me  not 
over  two  hundred  would  survive ;  fifty  had  died  on  the  passage ;  three  died 
while  the  boat  was  coming  to  the  land.  I  saw  five  men  dying  as  they  were 
carried  on  stretchers  from  the  boat  to  the  Naval  Hospital.  The  stretcher- 
bearers  were  ordered  by  Surgeon  D.  Vanderkieft  to  pause  a  moment  that  the 
names  of  the  dying  men  might  be  obtained.  To  the  credit  of  the  officers  and 
their  assistants  it  should  be  known  that  everything  was  done  in  the  most  sys 
tematic  and  careful  manner.  Each  stretcher  had  four  attendants,  who  stood  in 
line  and  came  up  promptly,  one  after  the  other,  to  receive  the  sufferers  as  they 
were  carried  off  the  boat.  There  was  no  confusion,  no  noise ;  all  acted  with 
perfect  military  order.  Ah !  it  was  a  solemn  funeral  service  to  many  a  brave 
soldier,  that  was  thus  being  performed  by  kind  hearts  and  hands. 

"  Some  had  become  insane ;  their  wild  gaze,  and  clenched  teeth  convinced 
the  observer  that  reason  had  fled ;  others  were  idiotic  ;  a  few  lying  in  spasms ; 
perhaps  the  realization  of  the  hope  long  cherished,  yet  oft  deferred,  or  the 
welcome  sound  of  the  music,  sent  forth  by  the  military  band,  was  more  than 
their  exhausted  nature  could  bear.  When  blankets  were  thrown  over  them,  no 
one  would  have  supposed  that  a  human  form  lay  beneath,  save  for  the  small 


372 


prominences  which  the  bony  head  and  feet  indicated.  Oh  !  God  of  justice,  what 
retribution  awaits  the  perpetrators  of  such  slow  and  awful  murder. 

"  The  hair  of  some  was  matted  together,  like  beasts  of  the  stall  which  lie 
down  in  their  own  filth.  Vermin  are  over  them  in  abundance.  Nearly  every 
man  was  darkened  by  scurvy,  or  black  with  rough  scales,  and  with  scorbutic 
sores.  One  in  particular  was  reduced  to  the  merest  skeleton ;  his  face,  neck, 
and  feet  covered  with  thick,  green  mould.  A  number  who  had  Government 
clothes  given  them  on  the  boat  were  too  feeble  to  put  them  on,  and  were  car 
ried  ashore  partially  dressed,  hugging  their  clothing  with  a  death-grasp  that 
they  could  not  be  persuaded  to  yield.  It  was  not  unfrequent  to  hear  a  man 
feebly  call,  as  he  was  laid  on  a  stretcher,  "Don't  take  my  clothes;"  "Oh,  save 
my  new  shoes ;"  "  Don't  let  my  socks  go  back  to  Andersonville."  In  their  wild 
death-struggle,  with  bony  arms  and  hands  extended,  they  would  hold  up  their 
new  socks,  that  could  not  be  put  on  because  of  their  swollen  limbs,  saying 
1  Save  'em  till  I  get  home.'  In  a  little  while,  however,  the  souls  of  many  were 
released  from  their  worn-out  frames,  and  borne  to  that  higher  home  where  all 
things  are  registered  for  a  great  day  of  account. 

"  Let  our  friends  at  home  have  open  purses  and  willing  hands  to  keep  up  the 
supplies  for  the  great  demand  that  must  necessarily  be  made  upon  them.  Much 
more  must  yet  be  done. 

"  Thousands  now  languish  in  Southern  prisons,  that  may  yet  be  brought  thus 
far  toward  home.  Let  every  Aid  Society  be  more  diligent,  that  the  stores  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  may  not  fail  in  this  great  work." 

Her  services  at  Annapolis  were  cut  short,  and  prematurely 
discontinued;  for  returning  to  her  home  for  a  short  stay,  to  make 
preparations  for  a  longer  sojourn  at  Annapolis,  she  was  again 
attacked  by  illness,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for  her  to  go 
thither  again. 

On  her  recovery,  knowing  that  an  immense  amount  of  igno 
rance  existed  among  officers  and  men  concerning  the  operations  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  she  compiled  a  somewhat  elaborate,  yet 
carefully  condensed  statement  of  its  plans  and  workings,  together 
with  a  great  amount  of  useful  information  in  relation  to  the  facil 
ities  embraced  in  its  system  of  special  relief,  giving  a  list  of  all 
Homes  and  Lodges,  and  telling  how  to  secure  back  pay  for  sol 
diers,  on  furlough  or  discharged,  bounties,  pensions,  etc.,  etc. 
Bound  up  with  this,  is  a  choice  collection  of  hymns,  adapted  to 


MRS.  LYDIA    G.  PAKRISH.  373 

the  soldier's  use,  the  whole  forming  a  neat  little  volume  of  con 
venient  size  for  the  pocket. 

The  manuscript  was  submitted  to  the  committee,  accepted,  and 
one  hundred  thousand  copies  ordered  to  be  printed  for  gratuitous 
distribution  in  all  the  hospitals  and  camps.  The  "  Soldiers' 
Friend/'  as  it  wras  called,  was  soon  distributed  in  the  different 
departments  and  posts  of  the  army,  and  was  even  found  in  the 
Southern  hospitals  and  prisons,  while  it  was  the  pocket  compan 
ion  of  men  in  the  trenches,  as  well  as  of  those  in  quarters  and 
hospital.  Many  thousands  were  instructed  by  this  little  direc 
tory,  where  to  find  the  lodges,  homes  and  pension  offices  of  the 
Commission,  and  were  guarded  against  imposture  and  loss.  So 
urgent  wras  the  demand  for  it,  and  so  useful  was  it,  that  the  com 
mittee  ordered  a  second  edition. 

Perhaps  no  work  published  by  the  Sanitary  Commission  has 
been  of  more  real  and  practical  use  than  this  little  volume,  or  has 
had  so  large  a  circulation.  It  was  the  last  public  work  performed 
for  the  Commission  by  Mrs.  Parrish.  At  the  close  of  the  war 
her  labors  did  not  end ;  but  transferring  her  efforts  to  the  ame 
lioration  of  the  condition  of  the  freedmen,  she  still  found  herself 
actively  engaged  in  a  work  growing  directly  out  of  the  wrar. 


MRS.    ANNIE    WITTENMEYER. 


RS.  ANNIE  WITTENMEYER,  who,  during  the 
early  part  of  the  war  was  widely  known  as  the  State 
Sanitary  Agent  of  Iowa,  and  afterward  as  the  originator 
of  the  Diet  Kitchens,  which  being  attached  to  hospitals 
proved  of  the  greatest  benefit  as  an  adjunct  of  the  medical  treat 
ment,  was  at  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  residing  in  quiet 
seclusion  at  Keokuk.  With  the  menace  of  armed  treason  to  the 
safety  of  her  country's  institutions,  she  felt  all  her  patriotic  in 
stincts  and  sentiments  arousing  to  activity.  She  laid  aside  her 
favorite  intellectual  pursuits,  and  prepared  herself  to  do  what  a 
woman  might  in  the  emergency  wrhich  called  into  existence  a 
great  army,  and  taxed  the  Government  far  beyond  its  immediate 
ability  in  the  matter  of  Hospital  Supplies  and  the  proper  provi 
sion  for,  and  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded. 

Early  in  1861  rumors  of  the  sufferings  of  the  volunteer  sol 
diery,  called  so  suddenly  to  the  field,  and  from  healthy  northern 
climates  to  encounter  the  unwholesome  and  miasmatic  exhalations 
of  more  southern  regions,  as  well  as  the  pain  of  badly-dressed 
wounds,  began  to  thrill  and  grieve  the  hearts  which  had 
willingly  though  sadly  sent  them  forth  in  their  country's  defense. 
Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  saw  at  once  that  a  field  of  usefulness  opened 
before  her.  Her  first  movement  was  to  write  letters  to  every 
town  in  her  State  urging  patriotic  women  in  every  locality  to 
organize  themselves  into  Aid  Societies,  and  commence  systemati 
cally  the  work  of  supplying  the  imperative  needs  of  the  suffering 


MRS.  ANNIE   WITTENMEYER.  375 

soldiers.  These  appeals,  and  the  intense  sympathy  and  patriotism 
that  inspired  the  hearts  of  the  women  of  the  North,  proved  quite 
sufficient.  In  Iowa  the  earlier  Reports  were  addressed  to  her, 
and  societies  throughout  the  State  forwarded  their  goods  to  the 
Keokuk  Aid  Society  with  which  she  was  connected.  As  the 
agent  of  this  society  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  went  to  the  field  and 
distributed  these  supplies. 

Thus  her  work  had  its  inception — and  being  still  the  chosen 
agent  of  distribution,  she  gave  herself  no  rest.  In  fact,  from  the 
summer  of  1861  until  the  close  of  the  war,  she  was  continually 
and  actively  employed  in  some  department  of  labor  for  the 
soldiers,  and  did  not  allow  herself  so  much  as  one  week  for  rest. 

From  June,  1861,  to  April  1st,  1862,  she  had  received  and  dis 
tributed  goods  to  the  value  of  $6,000.  From  that  to  July  1st, 
$12,564,  and  from  that  until  September  25th,  1862,  §2,000,  mak 
ing  a  total  of  §20,564  received  before  her  appointment  of  that 
date  by  the  Legislature  as  State  Agent.  From  that  time  until 
her  resignation  of  the  office,  January  13th,  1864,  she  received 
$115,876,93.  Thus,  in  about  two  years  and  a  half,  she  received 
and  distributed  more  than  §136,000  worth  of  goods  and  sanitary 
stores  contributed  for  the  benefit  of  suffering  soldiers. 

But  while  laboring  so  constantly  in  the  army,  Mrs.  "VVitten- 
meyer  did  not  overlook  the  needs  of  the  destitute  at  home.  In 
October,  1863,  a  number  of  benevolent  individuals,  of  whom  she 
was  one,  called  a  Convention  of  Aid  Societies,  which  had  for  its 
foremost  object  to  take  some  steps  toward  providing  for  the  wants 
of  the  orphans  of  soldiers.  That  Convention  led  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  Iowa  Soldiers7  Orphans'  Home,  an  Institution 
of  which  the  State  is  now  justly  proud,  and  which  is  bestowing 
upon  hundreds  of  children  bountiful  care  and  protection. 

While  laboring  in  the  hospitals  at  Chattanooga  in  the  winter 
of  1863—4,  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  matured  her  long-cherished  plan 
for  supplying  food  for  the  lowest  class  of  hospital  patients,  and 
this  led  to  the  establishment  of  Diet  Kitchens.  Believing  her 


376 

idea  could  be  better  carried  out  by  the  Christian  Commission, 
than  under  any  other  auspices,  she  soon  after  resigned  her  position 
as  State  agent,  and  became  connected  with  that  organization. 

From  a  little  work  entitled  "Christ  in  the  Army,"  composed 
of  sketches  by  different  individuals,  and  published  by  the  Chris 
tian  Commission,  and  from  the  Fourth  Report  of  the  Maryland 
Branch  of  the  Christian  Commission,  we  make  the  following 

'  O 

extracts,  relative  to  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer's  labors  in  this  sphere  of 
effort: 

"  The  sick  and  wounded  suffer  greatly  from  the  imperfect  cooking 
of  the  soldier  nurses.  To  remedy  this  evil,  a  number  of  ladies  have 
offered  themselves  as  delegates  of  the  Christian  Commission,  and 
arrangements  have  been  made  with  the  medical  authorities  to  estab 
lish  Diet  Kitchens,  where  suitable  food  may  be  prepared  by  ladies' 
hands  for  our  sick  soldiers, — the  Government  furnishing  the  staple 
articles,  and  the  Christian  Commission  providing  the  ladies  and 
the  delicacies  and  cordials.  One  of  these  at  Knoxville  is  thus 
described  by  a  correspondent  of  The  Lutheran : — 

"There  have  been  several  large  hospitals  in  this  city,  but 
recently  they  have  been  all  consolidated  into  one.  In  connection 
with  this  hospital  is  a  ( Special  Diet  Kitchen/  Many  of  our 
readers  will  doubtless  wonder  what  these  i  Special  Diet  Kitchens' 
are.  They  have  been  originated  by  Mrs.  Annie  Wittenmeyer,  of 
Keokuk,  formerly  State  Sanitary  Agent  of  Iowa.  In  her  arduous 
labors  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  she  met  with  a  large 
number  of  patients  who  suffered  for  want  of  suitably  prepared, 
delicate  and  nutritious  food.  None  of  the  benevolent  institutions 
in  connection  with  the  army  have  been  able  to  reach  this  class  of 
persons.  She  says,  in  her  report  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State :  '  This  matter  has  given  me  serious  and  anxious  thought 
for  the  past  year,  but  I  have  recently  submitted  to  the  Christian 
Commission  a  plan  by  which  I  believe  this  class  of  patients  may 
be  reached  and  relieved.  The  plan  proposed,  is  the  establish 
ment  of  "Special  Diet  Kitchens,"  in  connection  with  that  Coin- 


MRS.  AXN1E    WITTENMEYEK.  377 

mission,  to  be  superintended  by  earnest,  prudent  Christian  women, 
who  will  secure  the  distribution  of  proper  food  to  this  class  of 
patients — taking  such  delicate  articles  of  food  as  our  good  people 
supply  to  the  very  bed-sides  of  the  poor  languishing  soldiers,  and 
administering,  with  words  of  encouragement  and  sympathy,  to 
their  pressing  wants ;  such  persons  to  co-operate  with  the  surgeons 
in  all  their  efforts  for  the  sick/  This  plan  of  operations  has  been 
sanctioned  and  adopted  by  the  United  States  Christian  Commis 
sion.  There  is  one  in  successful  operation  at  Nashville,  under 
the  direction,  I  believe,  of  a  daughter  of  the  Honorable  J.  K. 
Moorehead,  of  Pittsburg.  The  one  here  is  under  the  direction  of 
Mrs.  E.  E.  Conrad,  of  Keokuk,  Iowa,  and  her  two  sisters.  They 
are  doing  a  great  and  good  work  now  in  Knoxville.  From  three 
to  five  hundred  patients  are  thus  daily  supplied  with  delicate  food, 
who  would  otherwise  have  scarcely  anything  to  eat.  The  success 
of  their  labors  has  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt  the  practicabil 
ity  of  the  plan  of  Mrs.  "Wittenmeyer.  The  good  resulting  from 
their  arduous  labor  proves  that  much  can  be  done  by  these  special 
efforts  to  rescue  those  who  are  laid  upon  languishing  beds  of  sick 
ness  and  pain,  and  have  passed  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  ordi 
nary  means.  The  great  need  wre  have  in  connection  with  these 
'Diet  Kitchens/  is  the  want  of  canned  fruits,  jellies,  preserves, 
etc.  If  our  good  people,  who  have  already  done  so  much,  will 
provide  these  necessary  means,  they  will  be  distributed  to  the 
most  needy,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  accomplish  the  most  good/' 
The  War  Department  is  so  wTell  satisfied  with  the  value  of  these 
Diet  Kitchens,  in  saving  the  lives  of  thousands  of  invalids,  that 
it  has  issued  the  following  special  Order : — 

SPECIAL   ORDERS,  No.  362. 

WAR   DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GENERATES  OFFICE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  24,  1864. 
[EXTRACT.] 

*     *     *     *     56.  Permission  to  visit  the   United   States  General  Hospitals, 
within  the  lines  of  the  several  Military  Departments  of  the  United  States,  for 
48 


378 

the  purpose  of  superintending  the  preparation  of  food  in  the  Special  Diet 
Kitchens  of  the  same,  is  hereby  granted  Mrs.  Annie  Wittenmeyer,  Special 
Agent  United  States  Christian  Commission,  and  such  ladies  as  she  may  deem 
proper  to  employ,  by  request  of  the  United  States  surgeons.  The  Quarter 
master's  Department  will  furnish  the  necessary  transportation. 

BY  ORDER  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  WAR : 

E.    D.    TOWNSEND, 

.Ass  istant  A  djutant-  General. 
OFFICIAL  : 

DIET   KITCHENS. 

Mrs.  Annie  Wittenmeyer  suggested  and  introduced  the  use 
of  the  Diet  Kitchen  into  the  hospitals.  The  Kitchen  was  used 
extensively  among  the  Branch  Offices  of  the  West.  The  design 
of  the  Kitchen  was,  to  have  prepared  for  the  men  who  were 
under  treatment,  such  articles  of  food  and  delicacies  as  are  grate 
ful  to  the  sick,  and  at  the  same  time  may  be  allowed  with  safety. 
The  ladies  who  were  engaged  in  this  department  performed  their 
labors  under  the  direction  of  the  surgeons,  who  appointed  their 
stations  and  approved  their  preparations.  The  process  was  very 
much  like  that  of  the  house  in  which  the  surgeon  directs,  and 
the  family  provides,  the  nourishing  food  that  is  needed  for  the 
patient. 

Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  had  the  Diet  Kitchens  under  her  supervis 
ion.  She  was  the  agent  of  the  Commission  for  the  purpose. 
She  operated  under  regulations  which  were  approved  by  the 
Commission  and  by  the  War  Department.  These  regulations 
were  printed  and  circulated  among  the  managers  of  the  Kitchens. 
So  effective  were  the  orders  under  which  the  department  was 
conducted,  that  not  the  least  difficulty  or  misunderstanding  oc 
curred,  notwithstanding  the  responsible  relations  of  the  co-ope 
rators,  part  being  officials  of  the  army  and  part  under  the  direction 
of  a  voluntary  service.  Each  of  the  managers  was  furnished  with 
a  copy  of  the  rules,  which,  with  the  endorsement  of  the  branch 
office  with  which  the  service  was  connected,  constituted  the  com 
mission  of  the  manager. 


MRS.  ANNIE    WITTENMEYER.  379 

The  Special  Diet  Kitchens,  were  first  adopted  in  the  Depart 
ment  of  the  Cumberland,  and  in  that  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
with  results  so  unexpectedly  beneficial,  that  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer 
was  earnestly  solicited  to  extend  the  work  to  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  This  she  did  in  the  winter  of  1864,  and  it  continued 
until  the  close  of  the  war  with  great  success. 

Much  of  this  success  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  the  class  of 
ladies  engaged  in  the  work.  Many  of  them  were  from  the  high 
est  circles  of  society,  educated,  refined  and  accomplished,  and 
each  was  required  to  maintain  the  life  and  character  of  an  earnest 
Christian.  They  thus  commanded  the  respect  of  officers  and 
men,  and  proved  a  powerful  instrument  of  good.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  Christian  Commission  has  borne  ample  testimony  to  the 
value  of  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Wittenmeyer,  and  her  associates  in 
this  department  of  hospital  service. 

Mrs.  Wittenmeyer  continued  actively  engaged  in  the  service 
of  the  Christian  Commission,  in  the  organizing  of  Diet  Kitchens, 
and  similar  labors,  until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  the  disbanding 
of  that  organization,  when  she  returned  to  her  home  in  Keokuk, 
to  resume  the  quiet  life  she  had  abandoned,  and  to  gain  needed 
repose,  after  her  four  years'  effort  in  behalf  of  our  suffering  de 
fenders. 


MISS    MELCENIA   ELLIOTT. 


MONG  the  heroic  and  devoted  women  who  have  labored 
for  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  in  the  late  war,  and  en 
dured  all  the  dangers  and  privations  of  hospital  life, 
is  Miss  Melcenia  Elliott,  of  Iowa.  Born  in  Indiana, 
and  reared  in  the  Northern  part  of  Iowa,  she  grew  to  woman 
hood  amid  the  scenes  and  associations  of  country  life,  with  an  art 
less,  impulsive  and  generous  nature,  superior  physical  health,  and 
a  heart  warm  with  the  love  of  country  and  humanity.  Her  fa 
ther  is  a  prosperous  farmer,  and  gave  three  of  his  sons  to  the 
struggle  for  the  Union,  who  served  honorably  to  the  end  of  their 
enlistment,  and  one  of  them  re-enlisted  as  a  veteran,  performing 
oftentimes  the  perilous  duties  of  a  spy,  that  he  might  obtain  valu 
able  information  to  guide  the  movements  of  our  forces.  The 
daughter,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  was  pursuing  her 
studies  at  Washington  College,  in  Iowa,  an  institution1  open  to 
both  sexes,  and  under  the  patronage  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church.  But  the  sound  of  fife  and  drum,  the  organization  of 
regiments  composed  of  her  friends  and  neighbors,  and  the  enlist 
ment  of  her  brothers  in  the  grand  army  of  the  Union  fired  her 
ardent  soul  with  patriotism,  and  an  intense  desire  to  help  on  the 
cause  in  which  the  soldiers  had  taken  up  the  implements  of  war 
fare. 

For  many  months  her  thoughts  were  far  more  with  the  soldiers 
in  the  field  than  on  the  course  of  study  in  the  college,  and  as 

380 


MISS    MELCENIA    ELLIOTT.  381 

soon  as  there  began  to  be  a  demand  for  female  nurses  in  the  hos 
pitals,  she  was  prompt  to  offer  her  services  and  was  accepted. 

The  summer  and  autumn  of  1862,  found  her  in  the  hospitals 
in  Tennessee,  ready  on  all  occasions  for  the  most  difficult  posts 
of  service,  ministering  at  the  bed-side  of  the  sick  and  desponding, 
cheering  them  with  her  warm  words  of  encouragement  and  sym 
pathy,  and  her  pleasant  smile  and  ready  mirthfulness,  the  very 
best  antidote  to  the  depression  of  spirits  and  home-sickness  of  the 
worn  and  tired  soldier.  In  all  hospital  wrork,  in  the  offices  of 
nursing  and  watching,  and  giving  of  medicines,  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  special  diet,  in  the  care  and  attention  necessary  to  have 
the  hospital  beds  clean  and  comfortable,  and  the  wards  in  proper 
order,  she  was  untiring  and  never  gave  way  to  weariness  or  failed 
in  strength.  It  was  pleasant  to  see  with  what  ease  and  satisfac 
tion  she  could  lift  up  a  sick  soldier's  head,  smooth  and  arrange 
his  pillow,  lift  him  into  an  easier  position,  dress  his  wounds,  and 
make  him  feel  that  somebody  cared  for  him. 

During  the  winter  of  1862-3,  she  was  a  nurse  in  one  of  the 
hospitals  at  Memphis,  and  rendered  most  useful  and  excellent 
service.  An  example  of  her  heroism  and  fortitude  occurred  here, 
that  is  worthy  of  being  mentioned.  In  one  of  the  hospitals  there 
was  a  sick  soldier  who  came  from  her  father's  neighborhood  in 
Iowa,  whom  she  had  known,  and  for  whose  family  she  felt  a 
friendly  interest.  She  often  visited  him  in  the  sick  ward  where 
he  was,  and  did  what  she  could  to  alleviate  his  sufferings,  and 
comfort  him  in  his  illness.  But  gradually  he  became  worse,  and 
at  a  time  when  he  needed  her  sympathy  and  kind  attention  more 
than  ever,  the  Surgeon  in  charge  of  the  hospital,  issued  an  order 
that  excluded  all  visitors  from  the  wards,  during  those  portions 
of  the  day  when  she  could  leave  the  hospital  where  she  was  on 
duty,  to  make  these  visits  to  her  sick  neighbor  and  friend.  The 
front  entrance  of  the  hospital  being  guarded,  she  could  not  gain 
admission  ;  but  she  had  too  much  resolution,  energy  and  courage, 
and  too  much  kindness  of  heart,  to  be  thwarted  in  her  good  in- 


382  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

tentions  by  red  tape.  Finding  that  by  scaling  a  high  fence  in 
the  rear  of  the  hospital,  she  could  enter  without  being  obstructed 
by  guards,  and  being  aided  in  her  purpose  by  the  nurses  on  duty 
in  the  ward,  she  made  her  visits  in  the  evening  to  the  sick  man's 
bed-side  till  he  died.  As  it  was  his  dying  wish  that  his  remains 
might  be  carried  home  to  his  family,  none  of  whom  were  present, 
she  herself  undertook  the  difficult  and  responsible  task.  Getting 
leave  of  absence  from  her  own  duties,  without  the  requisite  funds 
for  the  purpose,  she  was  able,  by  her  frank  and  open  address,  her 
self-reliance,  intelligence  and  courage  to  accomplish  the  task,  and 
made  the  journey  alone,  with  the  body  in  charge ;  all  the  way 
from  Memphis  to  Washington,  Iowa,  overcoming  all  difficulties 
of  procuring  transportation,  and  reaching  her  destination  success 
fully.  By  this  act  of  heroism,  she  won  the  gratitude  of  many 
hearts,  and  gave  comfort  and  satisfaction  to  the  friends  and  rela 
tives  of  the  departed  soldier. 

Returning  as  far  as  St.  Louis,  she  was  transferred  to  the  large 
military  hospital  at  Benton  Barracks  and  did  not  return  to  Mem 
phis.  Here  for  many  months,  during  the  spring,  summer  and 
autumn  of  1863,  she  served  most  faithfully,  and  was  considered 
one  of  the  most  efficient  and  capable  nurses  in  the  hospital.  At 
this  place  she  was  associated  with  a  band  of  noble  young  women, 
under  the  supervision  of  that  excellent  lady,  Miss  Emily  Par 
sons,  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  who  came  out  from  her 
pleasant  New  England  home  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  nursing 
department  of  this  hospital,  (then  in  charge  of  Surgeon  Ira  Rus 
sell,  United  States  Volunteers),  and  to  do  her  part  towards  taking 
care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  men  who  had  perilled  their  lives 
for  their  country.  A  warm  friendship  grew  up  between  these 
noble  women,  and  Miss  Parsons  never  ceased  to  regard  with  deep 
interest,  the  tall,  heroic,  determined  girl,  who  never  allowed  any 
obstacle  to  stand  between  her  and  any  useful  service  she  could 
render  to  the  defenders  of  her  country. 

Another  incident  of  her  fearless  and  undaunted  bravery  will 


MISS    MELCENIA    ELLIOTT.  383 

illustrate  her  character,  and  especially  the  self-sacrificing  spirit 
by  which  she  was  animated.  During  the  summer  of  1863,  it 
became  necessary  to  establish  a  ward  for  cases  of  erysipelas,  a 
disease  generating  an  unhealthy  atmosphere  and  propagating 
itself  by  that  means.  The  surgeon  in  charge,  instead  of  assign 
ing  a  female  nurse  of  his  own  selection  to  this  ward,  called  for  a 
volunteer  j  among  the  women  nurses  of  the  hospital.  There  was 
naturally  some  hesitancy  about  taking  so  trying  and  dangerous  a 
position,  and,  seeing  this  reluctance  on  the  part  of  others,  Miss 
Elliott  promptly  offered  herself  for  the  place.  For  several 
months  she  performed  her  duties  in  the  erysipelas  wTard  with  the 
same  constancy  and  regard  for  the  Avelfare  of  the  patients  that 
had  characterized  her  in  other  positions.  It  was  here  the  writer 
of  this  sketch  first  became  acquainted  with  her,  and  noticed  the 
cheerful  and  cordial  manner  in  which  she  waited  upon  the  suffer 
ers  under  her  care,  going  from  one  to  another  to  perform  some 
office  of  kindness,  always  with  words  of  genuine  sympathy, 
pleasantry  and  good  will. 

Late  in  the  fall  of  1863,  Miss  Elliott  yielded  to  the  wishes  of 
the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  and  became  matron  of  the 
Refugee  Home  of  St.  Louis — a  charitable  institution  made  neces 
sary  by  the  events  of  the  war,  and  designed  to  give  shelter  and 
assistance  to  poor  families  of  refugees,  mostly  widows  and  chil 
dren,  who  were  constantly  arriving  from  the  exposed  and  deso 
lated  portions  of  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Mis 
sissippi  and  Texas,  sent  North  often  by  military  authority  as 
deck  passengers  on  Government  boats  to  get  them  away  from  the 
military  posts  in  our  possession  further  South.  For  one  year 
Miss  Elliott  managed  the  internal  affairs  of  this  institution  with 

O 

great  efficiency  and  good  judgment,  under  circumstances  that 
were  very  trying  to  her  patience  and  fortitude.  Many  of  the 
refugees  were  of  the  class  called  "  the  poor  white  trash"  of  the 
South,  filthy,  ragged,  proud,  indolent,  ill-mannered,  given  to  the 
smoking  and  chewing  of  tobacco,  often  diseased,  inefficient,  and 


384 

either  unwilling  or  unable  to  conform  to  the  necessary  regulations 
of  the  Home,  or  to  do  their  own  proper  share  of  the  work  of  the 
household,  and  the  keeping  of  their  apartments  in  a  state  of 
cleanliness  and  order. 

It  was  a  great  trial  of  her  Christian  patience  to  see  families  of 
children  of  all  ages,  dirty,  ragged,  and  ill-mannered,  lounging  in 
the  halls  and  at  the  front  door,  and  their  mothers  doing  little 
better  themselves,  getting  into  disputes  with  each  other,  or  hover 
ing  round  a  stove,  chewing  or  smoking  tobacco,  and  leaving  the 
necessary  work  allotted  to  them  neglected  and  undone.  But  out 
of  this  material  and  this  confusion  Miss  Elliott,  by  her  efficiency 
and  force  of  character,  brought  a  good  degree  of  cleanliness  and 
order.  Among  other  things  she  established  a  school  in  the 
Home,  gathered  the  children  into  it  in  the  evening,  taught  them 
to  spell,  read  and  sing,  and  inspired  them  with  a  desire  for 
knowledge. 

At  the  end  of  a  year  of  this  kind  of  work  Miss  Elliott  was 
called  to  the  position  of  matron  of  the  Soldiers'  Orphans'  Home, 
at  Farmington,  Iowa,  which  she  accepted  and  filled  for  several 
months,  with  her  usual  efficiency  and  success,  when,  after  long 
and  arduous  service  for  the  soldiers,  for  the  refugees  and  for  the 
orphans  of  our  country's  defenders,  she  returned  to  the  home  of 
her  family,  and  to  the  society  and  occupations  for  which  she  was 
preparing  herself  before  the  war. 


MARY   DWIGHT    PETTES. 


O  one  who  was  accustomed  to  visit  the  military  hospitals 
of  St.  Louis,  during  the  first  years  of  the  war,  the 
meeting  with  Mary  Dwight  Pettes  in  her  ministry  to 
the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  must  always  return  as  a 
pleasant  and  sacred  memory.  And  such  an  one  will  not  fail  to 
recall  how  she  carried  to  the  men  pleasant  reading,  how  she  sat 
by  their  bed-sides  speaking  words  of  cheer  and  sympathy,  and 
singing  songs  of  country,  home,  and  heaven,  with  a  voice  of  an 
gelic  sweetness.  Nor,  how  after  having  by  her  own  exertions 
procured  melodeons  for  the  hospital  chapels,  she  would  play  for 
the  soldiers  in  their  Sabbath  worship,  and  bring  her  friends  to 
make  a  choir  to  assist  in  their  religious  services. 

Slender  in  form,  her  countenance  radiant  with  intelligence,  and 
her  dark  eyes  beaming  with  sympathy  and  kindness,  it  was  indeed 
a  pleasant  surprise  to  see  one  so  young  and  delicate,  going  about 
from  hospital  to  hospital  to  find  opportunities  of  doing  good  to 
the  wan  and  suffering,  and  crippled  heroes,  who  had  been  brought 
from  hard-fought  battle-fields  to  be  cared  for  at  the  North. 

But  no  one  of  the  true  Sisters  of  Mercy,  who  gave  themselves 
to  this  service  during  the  war,  felt  more  intense  and  genuine  sat 
isfaction  in  her  labors  than  she,  and  not  one  is  more  worthy  of 
our  grateful  remembrance,  now  that  she  has  passed  away  from 
the  scene  of  her  joys  and  her  labors  forever. 

Mary  Dwight  Pettes  was  born  in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  in 
the  year  1841,  and  belonged  to  a  family  who  were  eminent  for 

4y  385 


386 

their  intelligence,  and  religious  and  moral  worth.  The  circum 
stances  of  her  early  life  and  education  are  unknown  to  the  writer 
of  this  sketch,  but  must  have  been  such  as  to  develope  that  purity 
of  mind  and  manners,  that  sweetness  and  amiability  of  temper, 
that  ready  sympathy  and  disinterestedness  of  purpose  and  con 
duct,  which,  together  with  rare  conversational  and  musical  powers, 
she  possessed  in  so  high  a  degree. 

Having  an  uncle  and  his  family  resident  in  St.  Louis,  the  first 
year  of  the  war  found  her  in  that  city,  engaged  in  the  work  of 
ministering  to  the  soldiers  in  the  hospitals  with  her  whole  heart 
and  soul.  During  the  first  winter  of  the  great  rebellion  (18G2) 
St.  Louis  was  filled  with  troops,  and  there  were  thirteen  hospitals 
thronged  with  the  sick  and  wounded  from  the  early  battle-fields 
of  the  war.  On  the  30th  of  January  of  that  year  she  thus  wrote 
to  the  Boston  Transcript,  over  her  own  initials,  some  account  of 
her  labors  and  observations  at  that  time.  Speaking  of  the  hos 
pitals  she  said,  "  It  is  here  that  the  evils  and  horrors  of  the  war 
become  very  apparent.  Here  stout  hearts  are  broken.  You  see 
great  numbers  of  the  brave  young  men  of  the  Western  States, 
who  have  left  their  homes  to  fight  for  their  country.  They  were 
willing  to  be  wounded,  shot,  to  die,  if  need  be,  but  after  months 
of  inaction  they  find  themselves  conquered  by  dysentery  or  fever. 
Some  fifty  or  sixty  each  week  are  borne  to  their  long  home.  This 
may  have  been  unavoidable,  but  it  is  hard  to  bear.  *  *  *  * 
Last  night  I  returned  home  in  the  evening.  It  was  dark,  rainy, 
cold  and  muddy.  I  passed  an  ambulance  in  the  street.  The  two 
horses  had  each  a  leader  walking  beside  them,  which  indicated 
that  a  very  sick  soldier  was  within.  It  was  a  sad  sight;  and  yet 
this  poor  man  could  not  be  moved,  when  he  arrived  at  the  hos 
pital-door,  until  his  papers  were  examined  to  see  if  they  con 
formed  to  'Army  Regulations.'  I  protest  against  the  coldness 
with  which  the  Regulations  treat  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers." 

No  doubt  her  sympathetic  heart  protested  against  all  delays 
and  all  seeming  indifference  to  the  welfare  of  the  poor  fellows  on 


MARY   DWIGHT   PETTES.  387 

whose  bravery  and  devotion  the  salvation  of  the  country  de 
pended. 

In  her  devotion  to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  hospitals,  and 
her  labors  of  love  among  them,  she  sacrificed  many  of  her  o\vn 
comforts  and  pleasures.  Notwithstanding  the  delicacy  of  her  own 
health  she  would  go  about  among  them  doing  them  good. 

She  took  great  interest  in  seeing  the  soldiers  engaged  in  reli 
gious  worship,  and  in  assisting  to  conduct  the  exercises  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving.  When  these  services  were  ended  she  used  to 
go  from  ward  to  ward,  and  passing  to  the  bed-side  of  those  who 
were  too  weak  to  join  the  worship  in  the  chapel  would  read  to 
them  the  blessed  words  of  comfort  contained  in  the  Book  of  Life, 
and  sing  to  them  the  sweet  hymn,  "  Jesus,  I  love  thy  charming 
name." 

In  one  of  her  papers  she  has  left  this  record.  "  For  a  year  I 
have  visited  the  hospitals  constantly,  and  during  that  time  they 
have  been  crowded  with  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  I  never 
had  any  idea  what  suffering  was  until  I  had  been  in  the  wards 
after  the  battles  of  Fort  Donelson,  Pittsburg  Landing,  and  Pea 
Ridge.  The  poor  fellows  are  so  patient  too,  and  so  grateful  for 
any  little  service  or  attention." 

In  another  letter,  speaking  of  the  great  civil  war  in  wrhich  we 
were  then  engaged,  she  wrote,  "  Still  I  have  hope,  trusting  in  the 
justice  of  God.  Being  a  constant  visitor  to  the  hospitals  in  and 
about  this  city,  I  have  taken  great  pleasure  in  relieving  the  phy 
sical  as  well  as  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  as 
far  as  it  has  been  in  my  power,  proving  to  them  that  they  have 
sympathizing  friends  near  them,  although  their  home-friends 
may  be  far  away.  I  have  encouraged  them  to  be  cheerful,  and 
bear  their  sufferings  with  heroic  fortitude,  trusting  in  God,  and  a 
happier  and  better  future.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  I  do  them 
some  good  when  I  find  them  watching  for  my  coming,  and  that 
every  face  brightens  as  I  enter  the  ward,  while  many  say  to  me, 
1  We  are  always  glad  to  see  you  come.  It  cheers  and  comforts  us 


388 

mightily  to  have  you  come  so  bright  and  smiling,  asking  us  how 
we  do,  and  saying  always  some  pleasant  word,  and  giving  us 
something  good  to  read.  Then  we  love  to  hear  you  sing  to  us. 
Sometimes  it  makes  the  tears  come  in  our  eyes,  but  it  kind  o7  lifts 
us  up,  and  makes  us  feel  better.  We  sometimes  wonder  you 
come  here  so  much  among  us  poor  fellows,  but  we  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  your  heart  is  in  the  cause  for  which  we  are 
fighting,  and  that  you  want  to  help  and  cheer  us  so  that  we  may 
get  well  and  go  back  to  our  regiments,  and  finish  up  the  work 
of  putting  down  this  infernal  rebellion.7 7; 

"  One  day  as  I  lifted  up  the  head  of  a  poor  boy,  who  was  lan 
guidly  drooping,  and  smoothed  and  fixed  his  pillow,  he  said, 
i Thank  you;  that's  nice.  You  are  so  gentle  and  good  to  me 
that  I  almost  fancy  I  am  at  home,  and  that  sister  Mary  is  wait 
ing  upon  me.7  7: 

"Such  expressions  of  their  interest  and  gratitude/7  she  adds, 
"encourage  me  in  this  work,  and  I  keep  on,  though  often  my 
strength  almost  fails  me,  and  my  heart  is  filled  with  sadness,  as  I 
see  one  after  another  of  the  poor  fellows  wasting  away,  and  in  a 
few  days  their  cots  are  empty  and  they  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows 
no  waking  this  side  of  the  grave.77 

Thus  she  labored  on  in  her  work  of  self-sacrificing  love  and 
devotion,  with  no  compensation  but  the  satisfaction  that  she  was 
doing  good,  until  late  in  the  month  of  December,  1862,  she  was 
attacked  with  the  typhoid  fever,  which  she,  no  doubt,  had  con 
tracted  in  the  infected  air  of  the  hospitals,  and  died  on  the  14th 
of  January,  1863.  During  her  five  weeks  of  illness  her  thoughts 
wore  constantly  with  the  soldiers,  and  in  her  delirium  she  would 
imagine  she  was  among  them  in  their  sick  wards,  and  would  often 
speak  to  them  words  of  consolation  and  sympathy. 

In  a  letter  of  Rev.  Dr.  Eliot,  the  Unitarian  Pastor,  of  St. 
Louis,  published  in  the  Christian  Register  on  the  following  May, 
he  gives  the  impression  she  had  left  upon  those  with  whom  she 
had  been  sometimes  associated  in  her  labors.  Miss  Pettes  was  a 


MARY    D WIGHT    PKTTES.  389 

Unitarian  in  her  religious  faith,  and  this  fact  was  known  to  one 
of  the  excellent  Chaplains  who  regularly  officiated  in  the  hospitals 
at  St.  Louis,  and  who  belonged  to  the  Old  School  Presbyterian 
Church.  He  had,  however,  been  very  glad  of  her  co-operation 
and  assistance  in  his  work,  and  in  conducting  religious  worship 
in  the  hospitals,  and  thus  spoke  of  her  to  Dr.  Eliot,  some  months 
after  her  death.  "  Chaplain  P.  said  to  me  to-day,  '  Can  you  not 
send  me  some  one  to  take  the  place  of  Mary  Pettes,  who  died 
literally  a  martyr  to  the  cause  six  months  ago?'  'I  don't  think,' 
said  he,  'that  you  can  find  another  as  good  as  she,  for  her  whole 
heart  was  in  it,  and  she  was  like  sunshine  to  the  hospital.  But,' 
he  added,  'all  your  people  [the  Unitarians]  work  as  if  they 
really  cared  for  the  soldiers  and  loved  the  cause,  and  I  want  more 
of  them.'" 

Such  was  the  impression  of  her  goodness  and  Avorth,  and  moral 
beauty  left  by  this  New  England  girl  upon  the  minds  of  those 
who  saw  her  going  about  in  the  hospitals  of  St.  Louis,  during  the 
first  year  and  a-half  of  the  war,  trying  to  d6  her  part  in  the  great 
work  given  us  to  do  as  a  nation,  and  falling  a  martyr,  quite  as 
much  as  those  who  fell  on  the  field  of  battle,  to  the  cause  of  her 
country  and  liberty : — such  the  brief  record  of  a  true  and  spotless 
life  given,  in  its  virgin  purity  and  loveliness,  as  a  sacrifice  well 
pleasing  to  God. 


LOUISA    MAERTZ. 


URING  the  winter  of  1863,  while  stationed  at  Helena, 
Arkansas,  the  writer  was  greatly  impressed  with  the 
heroic  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  sick  soldier,  of  a 
lady  whom  he  often  met  in  the  hospitals,  where  she 
was  constantly  engaged  in  services  of  kindness  to  the  suffering 
inmates,  attending  to  their  wants,  and  alleviating  their  distress. 
He  soon  learned  that  her  name  was  Louisa  Maertz,  of  Quincy, 
Illinois,  who  had  come  from  her  home  all  the  way  to  Helena — at 
a  time  when  the  navigation  of  the  river  was  rendered  dangerous 
by  the  firing  of  guerrillas  from  the  shore  upon  the  passing 
steamers — that  she  might  devote  herself  to  the  work  of  a  hospital 
nurse.  At  a  later  period,  when  he  learned  that  she  had  left  a 
pleasant  home  for  this  arduous  service,  and  saw  how  bravely  she 
endured  the  discomforts  of  hospital  life  in  Helena,  where  there 
was  not  a  single  well-ordered  and  well-provided  hospital;  how 
she  went  from  one  building  to  another  through  the  filthy  and 
muddy  town,  to  carry  the  delicacies  she  had  obtained  from  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  dispense  them  to  the  sick,  with  her 
own  hands,  he  was  still  more  impressed  with  these  evidences  of  her 
agood,  heroic  womanhood,"  and  her  disinterested  benevolence. 
Recently  he  has  procured  a  few  particulars  of  her  history,  which 
will  serve  for  a  brief  sketch. 

Miss  Maertz  was  born  in  Quincy,  Illinois,  in  1838.  Her 
parents  were  of  German  birth,  and  among  the  early  settlers  of  the 
place.  From  infancy  she  was  of  a  delicate  constitution,  and 

390 


LOUISA    MAERTZ.  391 

suffered  much  from  ill  health ;  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years 
she  was  sent  to  Europe  in  the  hope  that  she  might  derive  benefit 
from  the  mineral  springs  of  Germany  and  from  travel  and  change 
of  climate.  Two  years  in  Germany,  Switzerland  and  Italy  were 
spent  in  traveling  and  in  the  society  of  her  relatives,  some  of 
whom  were  the  personal  friends  of  the  Monods  of  Paris,  Guizot, 
the  Gurneys  of  England,  Merle  D'Aubigne,  of  Geneva,  and 
other  literary  people  of  Europe,  with  several  of  whom  she  became 
acquainted.  From  this  visit  abroad  she  received  much  benefit, 
and  her  general  health  was  greatly  improved. 

From  an  early  period  she  had  cherished  two  strong  aspirations, 
the  desire  of  knowledge,  and  the  wish  to  devote  herself  to  works 
of  charity.  Her  heart  was  always  ready  to  sympathize  with  the 
sufferings  and  sorrows  of  humanity;  and  the  cause  of  the  orphan, 
the  slave,  the  poor  and  the  helpless  excited  a  deep  interest  in  her 
mind,  and  a  desire  to  devote  herself  in  some  way  to  their  relief. 
After  her  return  from  Europe  it  became  an  absorbing  aspiration 
and  the  subject  of  earnest  prayer  that  God  would  show  her  some 
way  in  which  she  could  be  useful  to  humanity. 

As  she  was  thus  becoming  prepared  for  the  wrork  upon  which 
she  afterwards  entered,  the  great  rebellion,  which  involved  the 
country  in  the  late  civil  war,  broke  forth;  the  early  battles  in 
Missouri,  and  at  Fort  Donelson  and  Belmont  led  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  hospitals  in  St.  Louis,  at  Mound  City,  and  at  Quincy, 
Illinois;  and  the  opportunity  came  to  Miss  Maertz,  which  she 
had  so  long  desired,  to  undertake  some  work  of  charity  and 
benevolence.  During  the  months  of  October  and  November, 
1861,  she  commenced  the  daily  visitation  of  the  hospitals  in 
Quincy,  carried  with  her  delicacies  for  the  sick  and  distributed 
them,  procured  the  redress  of  any  grievances  they  suffered,  read 
the  Scriptures  and  conversed  with  them,  wrote  letters  for  them  to 
their  friends,  dressed  their  wounds,  and  furnished  them  books, 
papers,  and  sources  of  amusement.  Althou'gh  her  physical 
strength  at  this  period  was  very  moderate,  she  seemed,  on  enter- 


392 

ing  the  hospital,  and  witnessing  the  sufferings  of  brave  men,  who 
had  dared  everything  for  their  country,  to  be  infused  with  a  new 
and  strange  vigor  that  sustained  her  through  every  exertion. 

In  particular  cases  of  tedious  convalescence,  retarded  by  infe 
rior  hospital  accommodations,  she — with  her  parents'  consent- 
obtained  permission  to  take  them  home,  and  nurse  them  till  they 
were  restored  to  health.  Thus  she  labored  on  through  the  fall 
and  winter  of  1861-2  till  the  battles  of  Shiloh  and  Pea  Ridge 
filled  the  hospitals  with  wounded  men,  at  St.  Louis  and  Mound 
City,  and  at-  Louisville  and  Evansville  and  Paducah,  and  she 
began  to  feel  that  she  must  go  where  her  services  were  more 
needed,  and  give  herself  wholly  to  this  work  of  caring  for  and 
nursing  the  wounded  patriots  of  the  war. 

After  waiting  some  time  for  an  opportunity  to  go  she  wrote  to 
Mr.  James  E.  Yeatman,  at  St.  Louis,  the  agent  of  Miss  Dorothea 
L.  Dix  for  the  appointment  of  women  nurses  in  the  hospitals  of 
the  Western  Department,  and  was  accepted.  On  reporting  her 
self  at  St.  Louis  she  was  commissioned  as  a  nurse,  and  in  the  fall 
of  1862  proceeded  to  Helena,  where  the  army  of  the  Southwest 
had  encamped  the  previous  July,  under  Major-General  Curtis, 
and  where  every  church  and  several  private  buildings  had  to  be 
converted  into  hospitals  to  accommodate  the  sick  of  his  army. 

It  was  here,  during  the  winter  of  1863,  that  the  writer  of  this 
sketch  first  met  with  Miss  Maertz,  engaged  in  the  work  of  a  hos 
pital  nurse,  enduring  with  rare  heroism  sacrifices  and  discomforts, 
labors  and  watchings  in  the  service  of  the  sick  soldiers  that  wTon 
the  reverence  and  admiration  of  all  who  saw  this  gentle  woman 
thus  nobly  employed.  It  was  of  her  the  following  paragraph 
was  written  in  the  History  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commis 
sion. 

"  Another  one  we  also  know  whose  name  is  likewise  in  this 
simple  record,  who,  at  Helena,  Arkansas,  in  the  fall  and  winter 
of  1862-3,  was  almost  the  only  female  nurse  in  the  hospitals  there, 
going  from  one  building  to  another,  in  which  the  sick  were  quar- 


LOUISA    MAERTZ.  393 

tered,  when  the  streets  were  almost  impassable  with  mud,  admin 
istering  sanitary  stores  and  making  delicate  preparations  of  food, 
spending  her  own  money  in  procuring  milk  and  other  articles 
that  were  scarce  and  difficult  to  obtain,  and  doing  an  amount  of 
work  which  few  persons  could  sustain,  living  without  the  plea 
sant  society  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed  at  home,  never 
murmuring,  always  cheerful  and  kind,  preserving  in  the  midst  of 
a  military  camp  such  gentleness,  strength  and  purity  of  character 
that  all  rudeness  of  speech  ceased  in  her  presence,  and  as  she 
went  from  room  to  room  she  was  received  with  silent  benedic 
tions,  or  an  audible  '  God  bless  you,  dear  lady/  from  some  poor 
sufferer's  heart." 

The  last  time  I  saw  Miss  Maertz,  while  engaged  in  her  hos 
pital  work,  was  at  the  grave  of  a  soldier,  who  was  buried  at 
Helena  in  the  spring  of  1863.  He  was  one  of  the  persecuted 
Union  men  of  Arkansas,  who  had  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  on 
the  march  of  General  Curtis  through  Arkansas,  and  had  fallen 
sick  at  Helena.  For  several  weeks  Miss  Maertz  had  nursed  and 
cared  for  him  with  all  a  woman's  tenderness  and  delicacy,  and 
perceiving  that  he  must  die  had  succeeded  in  sending  a  message  to 
his  wife,  who  lived  sixty  miles  in  the  interior  of  Arkansas,  within 
the  enemy's  lines.  On  the  afternoon  of  his  death  and  but  a  few 
hours  before  it  she  arrived,  having  walked  the  whole  distance 
on  foot  with  great  difficulty,  because  she  was  partially  blind;  but 
had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  the  parting  words  of  her  hus 
band  and  attending  his  burial.  Miss  Maertz  sent  word  to  me, 
asking  me  to  perform  the  burial  service,  and  the  next  day  I  met 
her  leading  the  half-blind  widow,  in  her  poverty  and  sorrow,  to 
the  grave.  Some  months  later  this  poor  soldier's  widow  came  to 
the  Refugee  Home,  at  St.  Louis,  and  was  cared  for,  and  being 
recognized  and  the  scene  of  the  lonely  burial  referred  to,  she 
related  with  tears  of  gratitude  the  kindness  she  received  from  the 
good  lady,  who  nursed  her  husband  in  his  last  illness  at  Helena. 

At  a  later  period   in  the  service,  Miss  Maertz  was  transferred 

50 


394 

to  the  hospitals  at  Vicksburg,  where  she  continued  her  work  of 
benevolence  till  she  was  obliged  to  return  home  to  restore  her 
own  exhausted  energies.  At  this  time  her  parelits  urged  her  to 
go  with  them  to  Europe,  wishing  to  take  her  away  from  scenes 
of  suffering,  and  prostrating  disease,  but  she  declined  to  go,  and, 
on  regaining  a  measure  of  health,  entered  the  service  again  and 
continued  in  it  at  New  Orleans  to  the  end  of  the  war, 

In  real  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Union; 
in  high  religious  and  patriotic  motives;  in  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  with  which  she  performed  her  labors;  in  the  heroism  with 
which  she  endured  hardship  for  the  sake  of  doing  good ;  in  the 
readiness  with  which  she  gave  up  her  own  interests  and  the  offer 
of  personal  advantages  and  pleasure  to  serve  the  cause  of  pat 
riotism  and  humanity,  she  had  few  equals. 


MRS.    HARRIET    R.    COLFAX. 


HIS  lady  whose  services  merit  all  the  praise  which  has 
been  bestowed  upon  them,  is  a  resident  of  Michigan 
City,  Indiana,  the  still  youthful  widow  of  a  near  rela 
tive  of  the  Honorable  Schuyler  Colfax,  the  present 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Her  father,  during  her  youth,  was  long  an  invalid,  and  his 
enforced  seclusion  from  all  business  pursuits  was  spent  in  bestow 
ing  instruction  upon  his  children.  His  conversations  with  his 
children,  and  the  lessons  in  history  which  he  gave  them  were 
made  the  means  of  instilling  great  moral  ideas,  and  amidst  all 
others  an  ardent  love  of  their  native  country  and  its  institutions. 
At  the  same  period  of  the  life  of  Mrs.  Colfax,  she  was  blest  with 
a  mother  whose  large  and  active  benevolence  led  her  to  spend 
much  time  in  visiting  and  ministering  to  the  sick.  Her  daughter 
often  accompanied  her,  and  as  often  was  sent  alone  upon  like 
errands.  Thus  she  learned  the  practice  of  the  sentiments  which 
caused  her,  in  the  hour  of  her  country's  trial,  to  lend  such  ener 
getic  and  cheerful  aid  to  its  wounded  defenders. 

Previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  war  Mrs.  Colfax  had  lost 
her  husband  and  her  father.  Her  mother  remained  to  advise 
and  guide  the  young  widow  and  her  fatherless  children,  and  it 
was  to  her  that  she  turned  for  counsel,  when,  on  the  announce 
ment  of  the  need  of  female  nurses  in  the  hospitals  that  were  so 
soon  filled  with  sick  and  wounded,  Mrs.  Colfax  felt  herself  im 
pelled  to  devote  herself  to  this  service  and  ministry. 

Her  mother  and  other  friends  disapproved  of  her  going,  and 

395 


390  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

said  all  they  could  in  opposition.  She  listened,  and  delayed,  but 
finally  felt  that  she  must  yield  to  the  impulse.  The  opposition 
was  withdrawn,  and  on  the  last  of  October,  1861,  she  started  for 
St.  Louis  to  enter  the  hospitals  there. 

Her  heart  was  very  desolate  as  she  entered  this  strange  city 
alone,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night.  Mr.  Yeatman,  with  whom  com 
munication  had  been  opened  relative  to  her  coming,  had  neglected 
to  give  her  definite  directions  how  to  proceed.  But  she  heard 
some  surgeons  talking  of  the  hospitals,  and  learned  that  they 
belonged  to  them.  From  them  she  obtained  the  address  of  Mr. 
Yeatman.  A  gentleman,  as  she  left  the  cars,  stepped  forward 
and  kindly  and  respectfully  placed  her  in  the  omnibus  which  was 
to  take  her  across  the  river.  She  turned  to  thank  him,  but  he 
was  gone.  Yet  these  occurrences,  small  as  they  were,  had  given 
her  renewed  courage — she  no  longer  felt  quite  friendless,  but  went 
cheerfully  upon  her  way. 

She  proceeded  to  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital,  where  Mr.  Yeat 
man  had  his  quarters,  and  was  admitted  by  the  use  of  his  name. 
The  night  nurse,  Mrs.  Gibson,  took  kind  charge  of  her  for  that 
night,  and  in  the  morning  she  was  introduced  to  the  matron, 
Mrs.  Plummer,  and  to  Mr.  Yeatman.  She  had  her  first  sight 
of  wounded  men  on  the  night  of  her  arrival,  and  the  thought  of 
their  sufferings,  and  of  how  much  could  be  done  to  alleviate 
them,  made  her  forget  herself,  an  obliviousness  from  wThich  she 
did  not  for  weeks  recover. 

She  was  assigned  to  the  first  ward  in  which  there  had  been  till 
then  no  female  nurse,  and  soon  found  full  employment  for  hands, 
mind  and  heart.  The  reception  room  for  patients  was  on  the 
same  floor  with  her  ward,  and  the  sufferers  had  to  be  taken 
through  it  to  reach  the  others,  so  that  she  Avas  forced  to  witness 
every  imaginable  phase  of  suffering  and  misery,  and  her  sympa 
thies  never  became  blunted.  Many  of  these  men  lived  but  a 
short  time  after  being  brought  in,  and  one  man  standing  with  his 
knapsack  on  to  have  his  name  and  regiment  noted  down,  fell  to 


MES.  HARRIET   R.  COLFAX.  397 

the  floor  as  it  was  supposed  in  a  swoon,  but  was  found  to  be 
dead. 

For  some  time  when  men  were  dying  all  around  with  typhus 
fever  and  wounds,  no  clergyman  of  any  denomination  visited 
them.  Mrs.  Colfax  and  other  ladies  would  often  at  their  request 
offer  up  prayers,  but  they  felt  that  regular  religious  ministrations 
were  needed.  After  a  time  through  the  intercession  of  a  lady,  a 
resident  of  St.  Louis,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Schuyler  came  often  to  supply 
this  want,  giving  great  comfort  to  the  sufferers. 

About  this  time,  the  ward  surgeon  was  removed,  and  another 
substituted  in  his  place,  Dr.  Paddock.  This  gentleman  thus 
speaks  of  the  services  and  character  of  Mrs.  Colfax : 

ST.  Louis,  March  2d,  1866. 

"  Among  the  many  patriotic  and  benevolent  Christian  ladies  who  volunteered 
their  services  to  aid,  comfort,  and  alleviate  the  suffering  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers  of  the  Union  Army  in  the  late  wicked  and  woful  Rebellion, 
I  know  of  none  more  deserving  of  honorable  mention  and  memory,  than  Mrs. 
Harriet  R.  Colfax.  I  first  met  her  in  the  Fifth  Street  General  Hospital  of  this 
city,  where  I  was  employed  in  the  spring  of  1862  ;  and  subsequently  in  the 
General  Hospital,  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  in  1863.  In  both  these  hospitals  she 
was  employed  in  the  wards  under  my  care,  and  subject  to  my  immediate  orders  and 
observation  In  both,  she  was  uniformly  the  same  industrious,  indefatigable, 
attentive,  kind,  and  sympathizing  nurse  and  friend  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldier.  She  prepared  delicacies  and  cordials,  and  often  obtained  them  to  pre 
pare  from  her  friends  abroad,  in  addition  to  such  as  were  furnished  by  the  Sani 
tary  Commission.  She  administered  them  with  her  own  hands  in  such  a  man 
ner  as  only  a  sympathizing  and  loving  woman  can ;  and  thus  won  the  heartfelt 
gratitude  and  affection  of  every  soldier  to  whom  it  was  her  duty  and  her  de 
light  to  administer.  No  female  nurse  in  either  of  the  hospitals  above  named, 
and  there  was  a  large  number  in  each  of  them,  was  more  universally  beloved  and 
respected,  than  was  Mrs.  Colfax.  I  had  not  the  opportunity  to  witness  her  ser 
vices  and  privations,  and  vexations  on  hospital  steamers,  or  elsewhere  than  in 
the  two  places  named  above ;  but  I  know  that  they  were  considerable  ;  and  that 
everywhere  and  under  all  circumstances,  she  was  alike  active  and  honored." 

In  Dr.  Paddock,  Mrs.  Colfax  truly  found  a  friend,  and  she  was 
able  to  accomplish  a  greater  amount  of  good  under  his  kind  di 
rections.  The  AVard  was  crowded.  The  wounded  arrived  from 


398 

Fort  Donelson  in  a  miserable  condition.  From  exposure,  many 
were  dangerously  ill  with  pneumonia,  and  died  very  soon ;  few 
recovered,  but  the  wounded  did  much  better  than  the  sick,  and 
were  so  patient  and  cheerful,  that  even  those  suffering  from  the 
worst  wounds,  or  amputations,  would  hardly  have  been  known 
not  to  be  well,  save  by  their  pale  faces  and  weak  voices.  Many 
would  not  give  way  till  the  last  moment,  but  with  strong  cour 
age,  and  brave  cheerfulness,  would  close  their  eyes  on  things  of 
earth,  and  pass  silently  into  the  unseen  world. 

In  the  spring,  Mrs.  Colfax,  finding  herself  much  worn  by  se 
vere  work  and  frequent  colds,  gladly  availed  herself  of  the 
change  offered  by  a  trip  on  the  Hospital-boat,  Louisiana,  then 
just  fitted  up  by  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

At  Cairo,  they  received  orders  to  proceed  to  Island  No.  10, 
and  there  unexpectedly  found  themselves  in  the  well-known  bat 
tle  which  took  place  at  that  point  on  the  16th,  17th,  and  18th  of 
March,  1862. 

The  Batteries  of  the  enemy,  on  the  banks  and  Island,  were  en 
gaged  w^ith  the  Union  gunboats.  The  firing  was  incessant  and 
protracted,  but  not  very  disastrous.  At  last  the  firing  from  one 
of  the  gunboats  resulted  in  the  killing  and  wounding  of  a  num 
ber  of  the  enemy,  \vhich  last  were  brought  on  board  the  Loui 
siana  for  care.  After  remaining  there  ten  days,  the  Louisiana 
returned  to  Cairo,  and  receiving  on  board  the  wounded  from 
Mound  City  Hospital,  carried  them  to  Cincinnati.  Mrs.  Colfax 
and  her  friends  were  very  busy  in  the  care  of  these  poor  men,  many 
of  them  very  low,  giving  unceasing  attentions  to  them,  and  even 
then  feeling  that  they  had  not  done  half  enough. 

Immediately  after  their  return  to  Cairo,  they  left  for  Savannah 
and  Pittsburg  Landing,  on  the  Tennessee  River.  They  took 
from  the  latter  place  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  leaving  again 
before  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  This  took  place  immediately  after 
they  left,  and  they  ran  up  to  St.  Louis,  landed  their  freight  of 
wounded,  and  returned  immediately  for  another  load. 


MRS.  HARRIET    R.  GOLF  AX.  399 

Two  hundred  and  seventy-five  desperately  wounded  men  from 
the  battle  of  Shiloh,  formed  this  load.  They  quickly  made  their  way 
Northward  with  their  freight  of  misery  and  suffering.  This  was  be 
yond  the  power  of  the  imagination  to  conceive,  and  the  nurses  were 
too  busy  in  their  cares  to  sleep  or  eat.  The  sorrowful  labor  was 
at  last  performed,  the  wounded  were  transferred  to  the  hospitals 
at  St.  Louis,  and  Mrs.  Colfax  returned  to  her  duties  there. 

After  remaining  some  time  in  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital,  and 
making  occasional  trips  on  the  Hospital-boats,  Mrs.  Colfax  was 
sent  to  the  Hospital  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  where  she  remained  a 
long  time,  and  where  her  services,  so  eminently  kind,  efficient 
and  womanly,  met  the  success  they  so  much  deserved. 

She  remained  in  the  service  as  a  hospital  nurse  two  years  and 
a  half.  Except  while  on  the  hospital  boats,  and  during  brief 
stays  at  the  various  hospitals  of  the  South-west,  while  attached 
to  the  Transport  Service,  she  spent  the  entire  time  at  Fifth  Street 
Hospital,  St.  Louis,  and  at  Jefferson  Barracks.  In  each  and 
every  place  her  services  were  alike  meritorious,  and  though  she 
encountered  many  annoyances,  and  unpleasant' incidents,  she  does 
not  now  regret  the  time  and  labor  she  bestowed  in  doing  her  share 
of  the  woman's  work  of  the  war. 

Like  all  earnest,  unselfish  workers,  in  this  eminently  unselfish 
service,  Mrs.  Colfax  delights  to  bear  testimony  to  the  efficient 
labors  of  others. 

All  who  worked  with  her  were  her  friends,  and  she  has  the 
fullest  appreciation  of  their  best  qualities,  and  their  earnest 
efforts.  Among  those  she  names  thus  feelingly,  are  Mrs.  Plum- 
mer,  the  matron  of  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital,  St.  Louis,  Miss 
Addie  E.  Johnson,  Mrs.  Gibson,  and  others,  her  fellow-workers 
there. 

Early  in  1864,  quite  worn  out  with  her  protracted  labors,  Mrs. 
Colfax  returned  to  her  home  in  Michigan  City,  where  she  still 
resides,  honored,  beloved  and  respected,  as  her  character  and  ser 
vices  demand. 


MISS    CLARA    DAVIS. 


HIS  lady,  now  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Abbott, 
of  Cambridgeport,  Massachusetts,  was  one  of  the  ear 
liest,  most  indefatigable  and  useful  of  the  laborers  for 
Union  soldiers  during  the  war.  Her  labors  com 
menced  early  in  the  winter  of  1861-62,  in  the  hospitals  of  Phila 
delphia,  in  which  city  she  was  then  residing. 

Her  visits  were  at  first  confined  to  the  Broad  and  Cherry  Street 
Hospital,  and  her  purpose  at  first  was  to  minister  entirely  to  the 
religious  wants  of  the  sick,  wounded  and  dying  soldiers.  Her 
interest  in  the  inmates  of  that  institution  was  never  permitted  to 
die  out. 

It  was  not  patriotism, — for  Miss  Davis  was  not  a  native  of 
this  country — but  rather  a  profound  sympathy  with  the  cause  in 
which  they  were  engaged  which  led  her,  in  company  with  the 
late  Rev.  Dr.  Vaughan  of  Philadelphia  (of  whose  family  she  was 
an  inmate)  to  visit  this  place  and  aid  him  in  his  philanthropic 
and  official  duties.  The  necessity  of  the  case  led  her  to  labor 
regularly  and  assiduously  to  supply  the  lack  of  many  comforts 
which  was  felt  here,  and  the  need  of  woman's  nursing  and  com 
forting  ways.  By  the  month  of  May,  ensuing,  she  was  giving 
up  her  whole  time  to  these  ministrations,  and  this  at  a  consider 
able  sacrifice,  and  extending  her  efforts  so  as  to  alleviate  the 
temporal  condition  of  the  sufferers,  as  well  as  to  minister  to  their 
spiritual  ones. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  summer,  memorable  as  the  season  of 

400 


MISS    CLARA    DAVIS.  401 

the  Peninsula  Campaign,  she,  in  company  with  Mrs.  M.  M.  Hus 
band,  of  Philadelphia,  entered  upon  the  transport  service  on  the 
James  and  Potomac  Rivers,  principally  on  board  the  steamer 
"John  Brooks" — passing  to  and  fro  with  the  sick  and  wounded 
between  Harrison's  Landing,  Fortress  Monroe  and  Philadelphia. 
This  joint  campaign  ended  with  a  sojourn  of  two  months  at  Mile 
Creek  Hospital,  Fortress  Monroe. 

Her  friend,  Mrs.  H.  thus  speaks  of  her.  "A  more  lovely 
Christian  character,  a  more  unselfishly  devoted  person,  than 
Miss  Davis,  I  have  never  known.  Her  happy  manner  of 
approaching  the  soldiers,  especially  upon  religious  subjects,  was 
unequalled ;  the  greatest  scoffer  would  listen  to  her  with  respect 
and  attention,  while  the  majority  followed  her  with  a  glance  of 
veneration  as  if  she  were  a  being  of  a  superior  order.  I  heard 
one  say,  ' there  must  be  wings  hidden  beneath  her  cloak/" 

After  leaving  Fortress  Monroe,  Miss  Davis  returned  to  Phila 
delphia,  and  recruited  her  supplies  for  the  use  of  the  soldiers. 
She  was  anxious  to  be  permitted  to  serve  in  the  field  hospitals, 
but  owing  to  unusual  strictness  of  regulation  at  that  time,  she 
was  not  permitted  to  do  so.  Later  in  the  season  she  accompanied 
Mrs.  Husband  to  Frederick  City,  Harper's  Ferry  and  Antietam, 
at  which  latter  place,  by  the  invitation  of  Surgeon  Vandcrkieft, 
and  Miss  Hall,  she  remained  several  weeks  doing  very  acceptable 
service. 

During  the  winter  of  1863  she  renewed  her  efforts  to  gain  per 
mission  to  serve  in  the  field  hospitals  of  the  army,  then  in  winter 
quarters  between  Falrnouth  and  Acquia  Creek,  but  was  again 
repulsed.  In  the  spring  she  once  more  renewed  her  efforts,  but 
without  success.  Again  visiting  Washington,  she  was  requested 
to  become  the  agent  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  at  Camp  Parole, 
Annapolis,  Maryland. 

She  commenced  her  laborious  duties  at  Camp  Parole  about  the 
1st  of  May,  1863.  She  made  numerous  friends  here,  among  all 
classes  with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  and  did  a  most  admirable 

51 


402 

work  among  the  returned  prisoners.  She  remained  here  the 
whole  summer,  never  allowing  herself  one  day's  absence,  until 
October.  She  suffered  from  ague,  and  her  labors  were  far  too 
great  for  her  strength.  Camp,  or  typhoid  fever,  seized  her,  and 
after  long  striving  against  weakness  and  pain,  she  was  obliged  to 
return  to  her  home  to  recruit.  She  made  great  efforts  ,to  again 
take  up  her  work  where  she  had  been  obliged  to  leave  it,  but  her 
strength  would  not  admit. 

c> 

She  did  not  recover  from  this  illness  until  the  following  Feb 
ruary,  nor  even  then  could  she  be  said  to  have  fully  recovered. 
As  soon  as  the  state  of  her  health  permitted,  indeed  before  her 
physician  gave  his  consent,  she  resumed  her  labors  at  Camp 
Parole,  but  in  a  few  weeks  the  fever  set  in  again,  and  further 
service  was  rendered  impossible.  Thus  closed  the  ministrations 
in  field  and  hospital,  of  one,  of  whom  a  friend  who  knew  her 
well,  and  appreciated  her  fully,  simply  says,  "Her  deeds  were 
beyond  praise." 

Her  health  was  so  undermined  by  her  labors,  that  it  has  never 
been  fully  recovered,  and  she  still  suffers,  as  she  perhaps  will  to 
the  end  of  her  life,  from  the  weakness  and  diseases  induced,  by 
her  unwonted  exertions,  and  the  fevers  which  so  greatly  pros 
trated  her. 

Nearly  two  years,  as  we  have  seen,  she  gave  to  her  labors  in 
camp  and  hospital,  labors  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  princi 
pally  directed  to  the  relief  of  physical  sufferings,  though  she 
never  forgot  to  mingle  with  them  the  spiritual  ministrations 
which  were  the  peculiar  feature  of  her  usefulness. 

The  interest  of  Miss  Davis  was  not  limited  to  soldiers  in  hos 
pitals,  any  more  than  were  her  labors  confined  to  efforts  for  their 
relief.  From  her  numerous  friends,  and  from  societies,  she  was 
in  constant  receipt  of  money,  delicacies,  reading  matter,  and  many 
other  things,  both  valuable  and  useful  to  the  soldiers,  and  not 
embraced  in  the  government  supplies,  nor  sold  by  sutlers.  These 
she  distributed  among  both  sick  and  well,  as  their  needs  required. 


MTSS    CLARA    DAVIS.  403 

"She  corresponded  largely  with  the  friends  of  sick  soldiers; 
she  represented  their  needs  to  those  who  had  the  means  to  relieve 
them;  she  used  her  influence  in  obtaining  furloughs  for  the  con 
valescents,  and  discharges  for  the  incurables;  she  importuned 
tape-bound  officials  for  passes,  that  the  remains  of  the  poor  unpaid 
soldier  might  be  buried  beside  his  parents;  she  erected  head 
boards  at  every  soldier's  grave  at  that  time  in  the  cemetery  at 
West  Philadelphia,  as  a  temporary  memorial  and  record." 

In  the  heat  of  Virginian  summers,  and  the  inclement  winters, 
it  was  with  her  the  same  steady  unchanged  work,  till  sickness 
put  an  end  to  her  labors.  Till  the  last  her  intercourse  with  the 
soldiers  was  always  both  pleasant,  and  in  the  highest  sense  profit 
able. 


MRS.    R.    H.    SPENCER. 


F  all  tht  band  of  noble  women  who  during  the  war 

O 

gave  their  time  and  best  labors  with  devotedness  and 
singleness  of  purpose  to  the  care  of  the  suffering  de 
fenders  of  their  country,  few,  perhaps,  have  been  as 
efficient  and  useful  in  their  chosen  sphere  as  Mrs.  Spencer. 

That  she  left  a  home  of  quiet  ease  and  comfort,  and  gave  her 
self,  with  her  whole  soul,  to  the  cause  she  loved,  is  not  more  than 
very  many  others  have  done,  but  she  incited  her  husband  to 
offer  himself  to  his  country,  and  gladly  accompanied  him,  sharing 
all  his  privations,  and  creating  for  him,  a*hid  the  rudest  sur 
roundings,  home  with  all  its  comforts  and  enjoyments. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  Mrs.  Spencer  was  living  at 
Oswego,  New  York,  which  had  been  her  residence  for  many 
years.  Her  husband,  Captain  II.  H.  Spencer,  had  been  formerly 
commander  of  several  of  the  finest  vessels  which  sail  from  that 
port  in  the  trade  upon  the  upper  lakes.  But  for  some  years  he 
had  remained  on  shore,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  occupation  of 
teaching,  in  which  he  had  a  very  fine  reputation.  Mrs.  Spencer 
was  also  a  teacher,  and  both  were  connected  with  the  public 
schools  for  which  that  city  is  celebrated. 

Mr.  Spencer  was  a  member  of  that  wing  of  the  Democratic 
party  which  opposed  the  war,  and  his  age  already  exempted  him 
from  military  duty. 

When,  therefore,  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Antietam  he 
announced  to  Mrs.  Spencer  that  he  had  resolved  to  enlist  in  the 

•104 


MRS.    R.    H.    SPENCF.R 


oble  women  who  (luring  the  war 
iftivc  ih</*r  i.im<*  awl  b<-st  labors  with  devotedness  and 

-'TmrleiK'.ss  oi   purple  to  the  cure  of  the  suffer  mir  de- 

Jin  vi  >  b<jen  as 


i  •.««::;•  uTu.1  oonilovt,  M.ud   i.'five  her- 
iiiot'e  than 

:-  '•'.*•   -i»«j  incited    lit'i'   husband   to 

hi'-  .Niiuury,  rmd  :.da«l!y  :^.-i*>mpa!iied  him,  sliarmsj 

,   mid  1  iW  Him,  u-?5iid4he  rudwt  sur- 

;»-.e  wii.1-         ;,,.  (s>mfurts  and  enjoyment-;. 

•  'cuJin:t.    -v:n;i:ut  <>t  the  war,  Mrt.  Spencer  was  Hvin-.  At 

"          \  r»vk,    whicii  had    be-on   her  residemv 
iiit.r  liu-J'Uiid,  Oapiahi  H.  H.  Spender,  }}••  r-: 

-)er  oi'  N.-v<;r-ii  of'  the  fin^t  -ves.-^:!-,  that 

'-«'•  :;:'•''    U-IOM    the  upper  Uikc-.       >''•'•*    feif  ••  *-irrs  lit1 

siiore.  and  deyok^i  •«  ,}>utiou  of 

,  in  v.  h.rh  ho  had  a  V'1;     [ii^   rt^»«:*4-?  '^Irs. 

1   i'oth    Wei**1  I/on*  >  ~-'.'i    the 

h  rhiit  fity  is  w-h'bnited. 

•;»•''  »iuimber  of  thnr  •    tin;    1>*  :- 

!«-.'.  vt  '.;««.«•  ,!  t'l-.-vvur,  and  his  :«: 


MRS.  R.  H.  SPENCER.  407 

addition  to  this  she  often  took  charge  of  huge  piles  of  coats  be 
longing  to  the  weary  men,  which  otherwise  they  would  have 
thrown  away  as  superfluous  during  the  intense  heat  of  midday, 
to  miss  them  sorely  afterward  amid  the  twilight  dews,  or  the 
drenching  rains. 

The  battle  had  already  commenced  as  the  long  slow-moving 
train,  to  which  they  were  attached,  approached  Gettysburg,  and 
the  aAvful  roar  of  cannon  and  the  scattering  rattle  of  musketry 
reached  their  ears. 

The  day  previous  an  ammunition-wagon  in  their  train  had 
exploded,  and  Mrs.  Spencer  had  torn  up  the  thick  comforter 
which  usually  formed  her  bed,  that  the  driver  of  the  wagon,  who 
was  fearfully  burned,  might  be  wrapped  in  the  cotton  and  ban 
daged  by  the  calico  of  which  it  was  made.  Mr.  Spencer  remained 
to  care  for  the  man,  and  at  night — a  dark  and  rainy  night — she 
found  herself  for  the  first  time  separated  from  her  husband,  and 
unprotected  by  any  friend.  But  the  respectful  and  chivalric  in 
stincts  of  American  soldiers  proved  sufficient  for  her  defense 
against  any  evil  that  might  have  menaced  her.  They  spread 
their  rubber  blankets  upon  the  muddy  ground,  and  made  a  sort 
of  tent  with  others,  into  which  she  crept  and  slept  guarded  and 
secure  through  the  long  dark  hours.  At  morning  they  vied  with 
each  other  in  preparing  her  breakfast,  and  waiting  upon  her  with 
every  possible  respect  and  attention,  and  she  went  on  her  way, 
rested  and  refreshed. 

In  the  course  of  the  morning  Mr.  Spencer  rejoined  her.  After 
the  firing  was  heard,  telling  the  tale  of  the  awful  conflict  that 
was  progressing,  she  felt  that  she  could  no  longer  remain  with 
the  halting  train,  but  must  press  on  to  some  point  where  her  work 
of  mercy  might  commence. 

This  was  found  in  an  unoccupied  barn,  not  far  from  the  field, 
where,  by  the  assistance  of  her  husband,  she  got  a  fire  and  soon 
had  her  camp-kettles  filled  with  fragrant  coffee,  Avhich  she  distrib- 


408  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

uted  to  every  weary  and  wounded  man  who  applied  for  the 
refreshing  beverage. 

Wounded  in  considerable  numbers  from  the  Eleventh  Corps 
were  placed  in  this  barn  to  gain  which  they  crossed  the  fields 
between  two  rows  of  artillery,  stationed  there.  Mrs.  Spencer  had 
two  knapsacks  and  two  haversacks  suspended  from  her  saddle, 
and  supplied  with  materials  for  making  tea,  coffee  and  beef- tea — 
with  these  and  crackers,  she  contrived  to  provide  refreshment. 
Meanwhile  the  balls  and  shells  were  falling  fast  around  the  barn, 
and  orders  came  to  move  further  back. 

But  this  brave  woman  with  her  husband  chose  to  move  forward 
rather,  in  search  of  her  own  regiment,  though  the  enemy  were  then 
gaining  upon  the  Union  troops.  As  they  went  on  toward  the 
battle,  they  found  their  regiment  stationed  on  a  hill  above  them, 
and  halting  they  made  a  fire  and  prepared  refreshments  which 
they  gave  to  all  they  could  reach. 

While  working  here  the  Surgeon  of  the  First  Division  came 
hurrying  past,  and  peremptorily  called  on  Mrs.  Spencer  to  go 
and  help  form  a  hospital.  When  she  and  Mr.  Spencer  found 
that  many  men  of  their  own  regiment  were  in  the  train  of  ambu 
lances  which  was  going  slowly  past  with  the  sufferers,  they 
followed. 

They  crossed  to  the  White  Church,  on  the  Baltimore  turnpike, 
about  four  miles  from  Gettysburg,  and  reached  there  after  dark, 
They  had  sixty  wounded  undergoing  every  variety  of  suffering 
and  torture.  The  church  was  small,  having  but  one  aisle,  and 
the  narrow  seats  were  fixtures.  A  small  building  adjoining  pro 
vided  boards  which  were  laid  on  the  tops  of  the  seats,  and 
covered  with  straw,  and  on  these  the  wounded  were  laid. 

The  supply  train  had  been  sent  back  fourteen  miles.  A  num 
ber  of  surgeons  were  there,  but  none  had  instruments,  and  could 
do  very  little  for  the  wounded,  and  Mrs.  Spencer  found  the  stores 
contained  in  her  knapsacks  and  haversacks  most  useful  in  refresh 
ing  these  sufferers. 


MRS.  R.  H.  SPENCER.  409 

In  the  course  jf  a  few  days  the  confusion  subsided.  The  hos 
pital  was  thoroughly  organized.  The  Sanitary  and  Christian 
Commissions  and  the  people  came  and  aided  them,  and  order 
came  out  of  the  chaos  that  followed  this  awful  battle. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  the  buildings  and  tents  which  formed  this 
hospital  contained  over  six  hundred  Union  troops,  and  more  than 
one  hundred  wounded  prisoners,  and  Mrs.  Spencer  found  herself 
constantly  and  fully  employed,  nursing  the  wounded,  and  daily 
riding  into  town  for  supplies. 

It  was  here  that  she  gained,  and  very  justly  as  it  would  seem, 
the  credit  of  saving  the  life  of  a  wounded  soldier,  a  townsman  of 
her  own.  The  man  was  shot  in  the  mouth  and  throat,  a  huge 
gaping  orifice  on  the  side  of  his  neck  showing  where  the  ball 
found  exit.  The  surgeons  gave  him  but  a  few  days  to  live,  as  he 
could  swallow  nothing,  the  liquids  which  were  all  he  even  could 
attempt  to  take,  passing  out  by  the  wound.  Tearfully  he  be 
sought  Mrs.  Spencer's  aid.  Young  and  strong,  and  full  of  life, 
he  could  not  contemplate  a  death  of  slow  starvation.  Mrs. 
Spencer  went  to  the  surgeons  and  besought  their  aid.  None  of 
them  could  give  hope,  for  none  conceived  the  strength  of  will  in 
nurse  or  patient. 

"Do  as  I  tell  you  ,  and  you  shall  not  die,"  said  Mrs. 

Spencer.  "Can  you  bear  to  go  without  food  a  week?" 

Gratefully  the  man  signed  "yes,"  and  with  the  tough  unyield 
ing  patience  of  a  hero,  he  bore  the  pains  of  wound  and  hunger. 
In  the  meantime  the  chief  appliance  was  the  basin  of  pure  cold 
water  from  which  he  was  directed  to  keep  his  wound  continually 
wet,  that  horrid  wound  which  it  seemed  no  human  skill  could 
heal. 

In  a  few  days  the  inflammation  began  to  subside,  even  the  sur 
geons  decided  the  symptoms  good,  and  began  to  watch  the  case 
with  interest.  The  ragged  edges  of  the  wound,  when  the  swell 
ing  subsided,  could  be  closed  up.  Then,  by  direction  of  his 
kind  nurse,  he  plunged  his  face  into  a  basin  of  broth,  and  supped 


410 

from  it  strength ,  since  it  did  not  all  escape  from  the  still  tin  healed 
wound.  Every  day  witnessed  an  improvement.  In  a  little  time 
he  took  his  food  like  a  human  being;  each  day  witnessed  new 
strength  and  healing,  and  then  he  was  saved,  and  the  nurse 
proved  wiser,  for  once,  than  the  doctor ! 

For  three  weeks  Mrs.  Spencer  remained  in  the  White  Church 
Hospital.  She  then  accompanied  some  wounded  to  New  York 
City,  and  took  a  brief  respite  from  her  duties,  and  the  awful 
scenes  she  had  witnessed. 

On  her  return  to  Gettysburg,  she  received  as  a  mark  of  the  es 
teem  felt  for  her  by  those  who  had  witnessed  her  labors  and  devo 
tion  to  the  work,  and  the  confidence  reposed  in  her,  the  appoint 
ment  of  Agent  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  the  care  of  its  sick 
and  wounded  soldiers  in  the  field.  Large  discretionary  powers, 
both  as  to  the  purchase  and  the  distribution  of  supplies,  were 
granted  her ;  and  every  effort  was  made  to  have  this  appointment 
distinguished  as  a  mark  of  the  high  appreciation  and  esteem 
which  she  had  won  in  the  discharge  of  her  duties. 

As  her  husband  was  detailed  as  clerk  in  the  Medical  Purvey 
or's  Office,  at  Gettysburg,  she  remained  there  in  the  active  per 
formance  of  her  duties  for  a  considerable  time. 

Beside  the  supplies  furnished  by  the  State  of  New  York,  a 
large  amount  were  entrusted  to  her,  by  various  Ladies'  Aid  Soci 
eties,  and  kindred  associations. 

After  leaving  Gettysburg,  Mrs.  Spencer  was  variously  but  use 
fully  employed  at  various  places,  and  in  various  ways,  but  always 
making  her  duties  as  State  agent  for  the  New  York  troops  promi 
nent,  and  of  the  first  importance.  She  was  for  some  time  at 
Brandy  Station.  While  there  her  husband  received  his  dis 
charge  from  the  Volunteer  Service,  but  immediately  entered  the 
regular  service,  as  Hospital  Steward,  and  was  attached  to  the 
Medical  Purveyor's  Department. 

From  Brandy  Station,  Mrs.  Spencer  went  to  Alexandria,  and 
remained  there  until  after  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  when  she 


MRS.  R.  H.  SPEXCER.  411 

was  ordered  by  the  Surgeon-General  to  repair  to  Rappahan- 
nock  Station,  with  needful  supplies  for  the  wounded.  On  arriv 
ing  there,  no  wounded  were  found,  and  it  was  rumored  that  the 
ambulances  containing  them  had  been  intercepted  by  the  enemy, 
and  turned  another  way. 

The  party  therefore  returned  to  Alexandria,  and  there  received 
orders  to  repair  with  stores  to  Belle  Plain.  The  Steamer  on 
which  Mrs.  Spencer  was,  arrived  at  day-break  at  its  destination, 
but  she  could  not  for  some  time  get  on  shore.  As  soon  as  possi 
ble  she  landed,  anxious  to  let  her  services  be  of  some  avail  to  the 
many  wounded  who  stood  in  immediate  need  of  assistance,  and 
thinking  she  might  at  least  make  coffee  or  tea  for  some  of  them. 

After  distributing  what  supplies  she  had,  she  found  in  an 
other  part  of  the  field  several  Theological  Students,  delegates 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  who  were  making  coffee  in  camp 
kettles  for  the  wounded.  Her  services  were  thankfully  accepted 
by  them.  All  the  day,  and  far  into  the  night  they  worked, 
standing  inches  deep  in  the  tenacious  Virginia  mud,  till  thou 
sands  had  been  served. 

All  the  afternoon  the  wounded  were  arriving.  Thousands 
were  laid  upon  the  ground,  upon  the  hill-side,  perhaps  under  the 
shelter  of  a  bush,  perhaps  with  only  the  sky  above  them,  from 
which  the  rain  poured  in  torrents. 

All  with  scarcely  an  exception  were  patient,  cheerful,  and 
thoughtful — when  asked  as  to  their  own  condition,  seeming  more 
troubled  by  the  risk  she  ran  in  taking  cold,  than  of  their  own 
sufferings. 

Late  in  the  night,  she  remembered  that  she  was  alone,  and 
must  rest  somewhere.  A  wagon  driver  willingly  gave  her  his 
place  in  the  wagon,  and  thoroughly  drenched  with  rain,  and  cov 
ered  with  mud,  she  there  rested  for  the  first  time  in  many  hours. 
Her  sad  and  anxious  thoughts  with  her  physical  discomforts  pre 
vented  sleep,  but  with  the  dawn  she  had  rested  so  much,  as  to  be 
able  to  resume  her  labors. 


412  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Another,  and  another  day  passed.  The  wounded  from  those 
fearful  battles  continued  to  arrive,  and  to  be  cared  for,  as  well  as 
was  possible  under  the  circumstances.  The  workers  were  shortly 
afterward  made  as  comfortable  as  was  possible.  For  two  weeks 
Mrs.  Spencer  remained,  and  labored  at  Belle  Plain,  remained  till 
her  clothing  of  which,  not  expecting  to  remain,  she  had  brought 
no  change,  was  nearly  worn  out.  The  need  was  so  pressing,  of 
care  for  the  wounded,  that  she  scarcely  thought  of  herself. 

In  the  latter  part  of  May,  she  left  Belle  Plain,  and  went  to 
Port  Royal,  where  similar  scenes  were  enacted,  save  that  there  a 
shelter  was  provided.  She  had  joined  forces  with  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  and  the  facilities  were  now  good  and  the  workers 
numerous,  yet  it  was  barely  possible,  with  all  these,  and  with 
Government  and  Commission  supplies,  and  private  contributions, 
to  feed  the  applicants. 

The  Medical  Purveyor's  boat  with  her  husband  on  board,  hav 
ing  arrived,  Mrs.  Spencer  proceeded  on  that  boat  to  White  House, 
where  she  was  placed  in  Superintendence  of  the  Government 
Cooking  Barge,  continuing  at  the  same  time  her  supervision  of 
the  wants  of  the  New  York  soldiery. 

Here  they  fed  the  first  wounded  who  arrived  from  the  field, 
and  here  Mrs.  Spencer  continued  many  days  directing  the  feed 
ing  of  thousands  more,  ever  remembering  the  regiments  from  her 
own  State,  as  her  special  charge,  and  assisted  by  many  volunteers 
and  others  in  her  arduous  task. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1864,  Mrs.  Spencer  arrived  at  City  Point. 
The  wounded  were  still  arriving,  and  there  was  enough  for  all  to 
do.  A  Hospital  was  here  established,  a  mile  from  the  landing. 
The  Government  kitchen  was  kept  up,  till  the  hospitals  and  their 
kitchens  were  in  full  operation,  when  it  was  discontinued,  and 
Mrs.  Spencer  relieved  from  her  double  task. 

From  that  time,  Mrs.  Spencer  confined  herself  mostly  to  the 
duties  of  her  agency,  and  continued  to  make  City  Point  her  head 
quarters  and  base  of  operations  until  the  close  of  the  war  closed 


MRS.  R.  H.  SPENCER.  413 

the  agency,  and  left  her  free  once  again  to  seek  the  welcome  se 
clusion  of  her  home. 

She  occasionally  visited  the  General  Hospitals  to  distribute 
supplies  to  her  New  York  soldiers  and  others,  but  these  being 
now  well  organized,  did  not,  owing  to  the  plenty  of  attendants 
greatly  need  her  services,  and  they  were  mostly  confined  to  visits 
to  soldiers  in  the  field,  at  the  Front,  Field  Hospitals,  and  in  the 
Rifle  Pits.* 

Her  equestrian  skill  now  often  came  in  use.  Often  a  ride  of 
from  twenty  to  forty  miles  in  the  day  would  enable  her  to  visit 
some  outlying  regiment  or  picket  station,  or  even  to  reach  the 
Rifle  Pits  that  honeycombed  plain  and  hill-side  all  about  Peters 
burg  and  Richmond,  and  return  the  same  day.  On  these  occa 
sions  she  was  warmly  and  enthusiastically  welcomed  by  the  sol 
diers,  not  only  for  what  she  brought,  but  for  the  comfort  and 
solace  of  her  presence. 

She  was  often  in  positions  of  great  peril  from  whizzing  shot 
and  bursting  shell,  but  was  never  harmed  during  these  dangerous 
visits.  On  one  occasion,  she  was  probably  by  reason  of  her  black 
hat  and  feather,  mistaken  for  an  officer,  as  she  for  a  moment  care 
lessly  showed  the  upper  part  of  her  person,  from  a  slight  emi 
nence  near  the  rifle  pits,  and  was  fired  at  by  one  of  the  enemy's 
sharp-shooters.  The  ball  lodged  in  a  tree,  close  by  her  side, 
from  which  she  deliberately  dug  it  out  with  her  penknife,  retain 
ing  it  as  a  memento  of  her  escape. 

Few  of  us  whose  days  have  been  passed  in  the  serene  quietude 
of  home,  can  imagine  the  comfort  and  joy  her  presence  and  cheer 
ing  words  brought  to  the  "boys"  undergoing  the  privations  and 
discomforts  of  their  station  at  the  "  Front,"  in  those  clays  of  peril 
and  siege.  As  she  approached,  her  name  would  be  heard  passing 
from  man  to  man,  with  electric  swiftness,  and  often  the  shouts 


*  Every  facility  was  furnished  her  by  the  various  officers  in  command,  and 
a  special  and  permanent  pass  by  General    Grant. 


414 

that  accompanied  it,  would  receive  from  the  enemy  a  warlike  re 
sponse  in  the  strange  music  of  the  whistling  shot,  or  the  burst 
ing  shell. 

Through  all  this  she  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed  life.  "  I  never 
believed  I  should  be  harmed  by  shot  or  shell,"  she  says,  and  her 
simple  faith  was  justified. 

She  even  escaped  nearly  unharmed  the  fearful  peril  of  the 
great  explosion  at  City  Point,  when,  as  it  is  now  supposed,  by 
rebel  treachery,  the  ammunition  barge  was  fired,  and  hundreds 
of  human  beings  without  an  instant's  warning,  were  hurried  into 
eternity. 

When  this  event  occurred,  she  was  on  horseback  near  the 
landing,  and  in  turning  to  flee  was  struck,  probably  by  a  piece 
of  shell,  in  the  side.  Almost  as  by  a  miracle  she  escaped  with 
only  a  terrible  and  extensive  bruise,  and  a  temporary  paralysis  of 
the  lower  limbs.  The  elastic  steel  wires  of  her  crinoline,  had 
resisted  the  deadly  force  of  the  blow,  which  otherwise  would 
undoubtedly  have  killed  her.  A  smaller  missile,  nearly  cut  away 
the  string  of  her  hat,  which  was  found  next  day  covered  by  the 
ghastly  smear  of  human  blood  and  flesh,  which  also  sprinkled  all 
her  garments. 

After  the  surrender  of  Richmond,  Mrs.  Spencer,  with  a  party 
of  friends,  visited  that  city,  and  she  records  that  she  experienced 
a  very  human  sense  of  satisfaction,  as  she  saw  some  rebel  pris 
oners  marching  into  that  terrible  Libby  Prison,  to  take  the  place 
of  the  Union  prisoners  who  had  there  endured  such  fearful  and 
nameless  sufferings. 

On  the  8th  of  April  the  President  came  to  visit  the  hospitals 
at  City  Point,  shaking  hands  with  the  convalescents,  who  were 
drawn  up  to  receive  him,  and  speaking  cheering  words  to  all.  A 
week  later  he  had  fallen  the  victim  of  that  atrocious  plot  which 
led  to  his  assassination. 

Mrs.  Spencer  remained  at  City  Point,  engaged  in  her  duties, 
till  all  the  wounded  had  been  removed,  and  the  hospitals  broken 


MRS.  E.  H.  SPENCER.  415 

up.  On  the  31st  of  May,  she  went  on  the  medical  supply  boat 
to  Washington.  She  there  offered  her  services  to  aid  in  any  way 
in  care  of  the  wounded,  while  she  remained,  which  she  did  for 
several  days.  About  the  middle  of  June  she  once  more  found 
herself  an  inmate  of  her  own  home,  and,  after  the  long  season  of 
busy  and  perilous  days,  gladly  retired  to  the  freedom  and  quiet 
of  private  life.  She  remained  in  the  service  about  three  years, 
and  the  entire  time,  with  only  the  briefest  intervals  of  rest,  was 
well  and  profitably  occupied  in  her  duties,  a  strong  will  and  an 
excellent  constitution  having  enabled  her  to  endure  fatigues  which 
would  soon  have  broken  down  a  person  less  fitted,  in  these 
respects,  for  the  work. 

Mrs.  Spencer  has  received  from  soldiers,  (who  are  all  her  grate 
ful  friends)  from  loyal  people  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
and  from  personal  friends  and  neighbors,  many  tokens  of  appre 
ciation,  which  she  enumerates  with  just  pride  and  gratitude. 
Not  the  least  of  these  is  her  house  and  its  furniture,  a  horse,  a 
sewing  machine,  silver  ware,  and  expensive  books ;  beside  smaller 
articles  whose  chief  value  arises  from  the  feeling  that  caused  the 
gifts.  Her  health  has  suffered  in  consequence  of  her  labors,  but 
she  now  hopes  for  permanent  recovery. 


MRS.    HARRIET    FOOTE    HAWLEY. 


MONG  the  many  heroic  women  who  gave  their  services 
to  their  country  in  our  recent  warfare,  few  deserve  more 
grateful  mention  than  Mrs.  Harriet  Foote  Hawley, 
wife  of  Brevet  Major-General  Hawley,  the  present 
Governor  of  Connecticut. 

Mrs.  Hawley  is  of  a  fragile  and  delicate  constitution,  and  one 
always  regarded  by  her  friends  as  peculiarly  unfitted  to  have  part 
in  labors  or  hardships  of  any  kind.  But  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  the  war,  she  was  an  exemplification  of  how  much  may 
be  done  by  one  "  strong  of  spirit,"  even  with  the  most  delicate 
physical  frame. 

She  went  alone  to  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  in  November, 
1862,  to  engage  in  teaching  the  colored  people.  While  there  she 
regularly  visited  the  army  hospitals,  and  interested  herself  in  the 
practical  details  of  nursing,  to  which  she  afterwards  more  partic 
ularly  devoted  herself,  and  that  spring  and  summer  did  the  same 
at  Fernandina  and  St.  Augustine. 

In  November,  1863,  she  rejoined  her  husband  on  St.  Helena 
Island,  to  which  he  had  returned  with  his  regiment  from  the 
siege  of  Charleston.  She  visited  the  Beaufort  and  Hilton  Head 
General  Hospitals,  as  well  as  the  post  hospital  at  St.  Helena  fre 
quently  during  the  winter,  especially  after  the  severe  battle  of 
Olustee,  in  February,  1864.  When  the  Tenth  Corps  went  to 
Fortress  Monroe,  to  join  General  Butler's  army,  Mrs.  HaAvley 
went  with  them,  and  failing  to  find  work  in  the  Chesapeake  Hos- 

416 


MRS.  HARRIET    FOOTE    HAWLEY.  417 

pital,  went  to  Washington  and  was  assigned  the  charge  of  a  ward 
in  the  Armory  Square  Hospital,  on  the  very  morning  when  the 
wounded  began  to  arrive  from  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness. 

Her  ward  was  one  of  the  two  in  the  armory  itself,  which  for  a 
considerable  time  contained  more  patients  than  any  other  in  that 
hospital.  "Armory  Square"  being  near  the  Potomac,  usually 
received  the  most  desperate  cases,  which  could  with  difficulty  be 
moved  far.  There  could  be  no  operating  room  connected  with  this 
ward,  and  the  operations,  however  painful  or  dreadful,  were  of 
necessity  performed  in  the  ward  itself.  The  scenes  presented 
were  enough  to  appal  the  stoutest  nerves.  The  men  exhausted 
by  marching  and  by  a  long  journey  after  their  wounds,  died  with 
great  rapidity — in  one  day  forty-eight  were  carried  out  dead — 
many  reaching  the  hospital  only  in  time  to  die. 

Among  scenes  like  these  Mrs.  Hawley  took  up  her  abode,  and 
labored  with  an  untiring  zeal  over  four  months  in  the  hottest  of 
the  summer  weather — never  herself  strong — often  suffering  to  a 
degree  that  would  have  confined  others  to  the  bed  of  an  invalid. 
She  was  ever  at  her  post,  a  guiding,  directing,  and  comforting 
presence,  until  worn-out  nature  required  a  temporary  rest.  After 
two  months  of  repose  she  again  returned  to  the  same  ward,  and 
continued  her  labors  from  November  to  the  last  of  March,  1865. 

About  the  first  of  March,  directly  after  its  capture,  her  husband 
had  been  assigned  to  the  command  of  Wilmington,  North  Caro 
lina. 

She  arrived  at  Wilmington,  directly  after  nine  thousand  Union 
prisoners  had  been  delivered  there,  of  whom  more  than  three 
thousand  needed  hospital  treatment. 

The  army  was  entirely  unprovided  with  any  means  of  meeting 
this  exigency.  The  horrible  condition  of  the  prisoners,  and  the 
crowds  of  half-fed  whites  and  blacks  collected  in  the  town,  bred  a 
pestilence.  Typhus  or  jail  fever  appeared  in  its  most  dreadful 
form,  and  the  deaths  were  terribly  frequent.  The  medical  officers 
tried  all  their  energies  to  get  supplies. 

53 


418 

The  garrison,  the  loyal  citizens,  and  all  good  people  gave  their 
spare  clothing,  and  all  delicacies  of  food  within  reach,  to  alleviate 
the  suffering.  At  one  time  nearly  four  thousand  sick  soldiers, 
together  with  some  wounded  from  the  main  army,  were  scattered 
through  the  dwellings  and  churches  of  the  town,  and  a  consider 
able  time  elapsed  before  one  clean  garment  could  be  found  for 
each  sufferer.  The  principal  surgeon,  Dr.  Buzzell,  of  New 
Hampshire,  died  of  over  exertion  and  typhoid  fever.  Of  five 
northern  ladies,  professional  nurses,  three  were  taken  sick  and 
two  died.  '  Chaplain  Eaton  died  of  the  fever,  and  other  chaplains 
were  severely  sick.  To  the  detailed  soldiers  the  fever  and  climate 
proved  a  greater  danger  than  a  battle-field.  Through  all  these 
scenes  of  trial  and  danger  Mrs.  Hawley  exerted  herself  to  the 
utmost,  in  the  hospitals,  and  among  the  poor  of  the  town,  avoid 
ing  no  danger  of  contagion,  not  even  that  of  small-pox. 

Gradually  supplies  arrived,  better  hospitals  were  provided,  the 
town  was  cleansed,  and  by  the  latter  part  of  June — though  the 
city  was  still  unhealthy — but  few  cases  remained  in  the  hos 
pitals. 

Mrs.  Hawley  accompanied  her  husband  to  Kichmond  about  the 
1st  of  July,  where  he  had  been  appointed  chief  of  staff  to  Gen 
eral  Terry.  In  October,  while  returning  from  the  battle-ground 
of  Five  Forks,  where  she  had  been  with  an  uncle  to  find  the 
grave  of  his  son  (Captain  Parmerlee,  First  Connecticut  Cavalry) 
she  received  an  injury  on  the  head  by  the  upsetting  of  the  ambu 
lance,  through  which  unfortunately  she  remains  still  an  invalid. 

Her  name  and  memory  must  be  dear  to  hundreds  whose  suffer 
ings  she  has  shared  and  relieved,  and  she  will  be  followed  in  her 
retirement  by  the  prayers  of  grateful  hearts. 

Although  it  does  not  perhaps  belong  to  the  purpose  of  this 
book,  it  seems  not  inappropriate  to  make  mention  of  the  labors 
of  Mrs.  Hawley  in  the  education  of  the  freedmen  and  their  fam 
ilies.  Both  she  and  her  sister,  Miss  Kate  Foote,  labored  in  this 
sphere  long  and  assiduously. 


MRS.  HARRIET   FOOTE    HAWLEY.  419 

Governor  Hawley  was  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  Boston  anni 
versaries,  in  May,  1866.  Colonel  Higginson,  in  alluding  to  his 
personal  services,  said  he  would  tell  of  his  better  half.  When  Col 
onel  Hawley  went  as  commander  of  the  Seventh  Connecticut  to 
Port  Royal,  to  do  his  share  of  conquering  and  to  conquer,  he  took 
with  him  a  thousand  bayonets  on  one  side,  and  a  Connecticut  woman 
with  her  school-books  on  the  other  (applause).  Where  he  planted 
the  standard  of  the  Union,  she  planted  its  institutions;  and  where 
he  waved  the  sword,  she  waved  the  primer. 


ELLEN    E.    MITCHELL. 


HIS  lady,  better  known  among  those  to  whom  she 
ministered  as  "Nellie  Mitchell/'  was  at  the  opening 
of  the  late  war  a  resident  of  Montrose,  Pennsylvania, 
where,  surrounded  by  friends,  the  inmate  of  a  pleasant 
home,  amiable,  highly  educated  and  accomplished,  her  early 
youth  had  been  spent.  Her  family  was  one  of  that  standing 
often  named  as  "  our  first  families,"  and  her  position  one  every 
way  desirable. 

Perhaps  her  own  words  extracted  from  a  letter  to  the  writer 
of  this  sketch  will  give  the  best  statement  of  her  views  and 
motives. 

"  I  only  did  my  duty,  did  what  I  could,  and  did  it  because  it 
would  have  been  a  great  act  of  self-denial  not  to  have  done  it. 

"  I  have  ever  felt  that  those  who  cheerfully  gave  their  loved 
ones  to  their  country's  cause,  made  greater  sacrifices,  manifested 
more  heroism,  were  worthy  of  more  honor  by  far,  than  those  of 
us  who  labored  in  the  hospitals  or  on  the  fields.  I  had  not 
these  'dear  ones'  to  give,  so  gave  heartily  what  I  could,  myself 
to  the  cause,  with  sincere  gratitude,  I  trust,  to  God,  for  the  privi 
lege  of  thus  doing." 

Miss  Mitchell  left  her  home  in  Montrose  early  in  May,  1861, 
and  proceeded  to  New  York  city,  where  she  went  through  a 
course  of  instruction  in  surgical  nursing  at  Bellevue  Hospital, 
preparatory  to  assuming  the  duties  of  an  army  nurse.  The  un- 

420 


ELLEN    E.  MITCHELL.  421 

wonted  labors,  the  terrible  sights,  and  close  attendance  so  impaired 
her  health  that  after  six  weeks  she  concluded  to  go  to  Woodbury, 
Connecticut,  where  she  remained  with  friends  while  awaiting 
orders,  and  in  consequence  did  not  join  the  army  as  soon  as  she 
otherwise  would.  Being  absent  from  New  York,  one  or  two 
opportunities  were  lost,  and  it  was  not  until  September  that  her 
labors  in  the  military  hospitals  commenced. 

She  had  intended  to  give  her  services  to  her  country,  but  after 
witnessing  the  frequent  destitution  of  comforts  among  those  to 
whom  she  ministered,  she  decided  to  receive  the  regular  pay  of  a 
nurse  from  the  Government,  and  appropriated  it  entirely  to  the 
benefit  of  the  suffering  ones  around  her. 

Luxuries  sent  by  her  friends  for  her  own  use  she  applied  in  the 
same  manner.  The  four  years  of  her  service  were  filled  with 
self-sacrifice  and  faithful  devoted  labor. 

Miss  Mitchell  spent  the  first  three  months  in  Elmore  Hotel 
Hospital,  Georgetown,  District  of  Columbia.  Around  this  place 
cluster  some  of  the  pleasantest,  as  well  as  the  saddest  memories 
of  her  life.  The  want  of  a  well-arranged,  systematic  plan  of 
action  in  this  hospital,  made  the  tasks  of  the  nurses  peculiarly 
arduous  and  trying.  Yet  Miss  Mitchell  records  that  she  never 
found  more  delight  in  her  labors,  and  never  received  warmer 
expressions  of  gratitude  from  her  "  boys."  On  being  brought  for 
the  first  time  to  a  place  associated  in  their  minds  only  with  gloom 
and  suffering  the  joyful  surprise  of  these  poor  fellows  at  finding 
kind  hearts  and  willing  hands  ready  to  minister  to  their  wants 
with  almost  motherly,  or  sisterly  affection,  exceeded  words  and 
called  forth  such  manifestations  of  gratitude  as  amply  rewarded 
those  who  thus  ivatched  over  them  for  all  their  toils.  Often  as  they 
saw  these  kindly  women  engaged  in  their  busy  tasks  of  mercy, 
their  eyes  would  glisten  as  they  followed  them  with  the  most 
intense  earnestness,  and  their  lips  would  unconsciously  utter 
remarks  like  these,  so  homely  and  spontaneous  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  of  their  sincerity.  "How  good!  how  home-like  to  see 


422  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

women   moving   around!      We   did   not   expect   anything   like 
this!" 

But  much  as  she  loved  her  work  and  had  become  attached  to 
her  charges,  circumstances  of  a  very  painful  nature  soon  com 
pelled  Miss  Mitchell  to  resign  her  post  in  this  hospital.  Very 
unworthy  hands  sometimes  assume  a  ministry  of  kindness.  There 
were  associations  here  so  utterly  repugnant  to  Miss  Mitchell,  that 
with  a  sorrowful  heart  she  at  last  forced  herself  to  turn  her  back 
upon  the  suffering,  in  order  to  be  free  from  them. 

But  Providence  soon  opened  the  way  to  another  engagement. 
In  less  than  two  weeks  she  entered  St.  Elizabeth's  Hospital. 
This  was  situated  in  Washington  across  the  Eastern  branch  of  the 
Potomac  in  an  unfinished  wing  of  the  Insane  Retreat. 

Her  initiation  here  was  a  sad,  lonely  night-watch,  by  the  bed 
side  of  a  dying  nurse,  who  about  ten  o'clock  the  following  day, 
with  none  but  strangers  to  witness  her  dying  conflicts,  passed 
from  this  scene  of  pain  and  struggle. 

It  was  about  the  last  of  December  that  she  entered  here,  and 
in  February  she  was  compelled  to  relinquish  the  care  of  her  ward 
by  a  severe  and  dangerous  illness  which  lasted  seven  weeks. 
Her  greatest  joy  in  returning  health  consisted  in  her  restoration 
to  the  duties  in  which  she  had  learned  to  delight. 

During  this  illness  Miss  Mitchell  was  constantly  attended  and 
nursed  by  Miss  Jessie  Home,  a  young  woman  of  Scottish  birth, 
of  whom  mention  is  made  in  another  place,  a  most  excellent  and 
self-sacrificing  woman  who  afterwards  lost  her  life  in  the  cause 
of  her  adopted  country. 

This  kindly  care  and  the  assiduous  and  skilful  attentions  of 
Dr.  Stevens,  who  was  the  surgeon  of  the  hospital  were,  as  she 
gratefully  believes,  the  means  of  preserving  her  life. 

Miss  Mitchell  had  scarcely  recovered  from  this  illness  when 
she  was  unexpectedly  summoned  home  to  stand  by  the  death-bed 
of  a  beloved  mother.  After  a  month's  absence,  sadly  occupied  in 
this  watch  of  affection,  she  again  returned  to  Washington,  whence 


ELLEN    E.  MITCHELL.  423 

she  was  sent  directly  to  Point  Lookout,  in  Maryland,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Potomac  into  Chesapeake  Bay,  where  a  hospital 
had  recently  been  established. 

She  remained  about  two  months  at  Point  Lookout,  and  was 
surrounded  there  with  great  suffering  in  all  its  phases,  besides 
meeting  with  peculiar  trials,  which  rendered  her  stay  at  this  hos 
pital  the  most  unsatisfactory  part  of  her  "  soldier  life.77 

Her  next  station  was  at  the  Ware  House  Hospital,  Georgetown, 
District  of  Columbia,  where  she  was  employed  in  the  care  of  the 
wounded  from  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run.  Most  of  these 
poor  men  were  suffering  from  broken  limbs,  had  lain  several  days 
uncared  for  upon  the  field,  and  were  consequently  greatly  reduced 
in  strength.  They  had  besides  suffered  so  much  from  their 
removal  in  the  jolting  ambulances,  that  many  of  them  expressed 
a  wish  that  they  had  been  left  to  die  on  the  field,  rather  than  to 
have  endured  such  torment.  Miss  Mitchell  found  here  a  sphere 
decidedly  fitted  to  her  peculiar  powers,  for  she  was  always  best 
pleased  to  labor  in  the  surgical  wards,  and  would  dress  and  care 
for  wounds  with  almost  the  skill,  and  more  than  the  tenderness 
of  a  practiced  surgeon. 

After  some  time  this  hospital  being  very  open,  became  unten 
antable,  and  in  February  was  closed,  and  Miss  Mitchell  was  trans 
ferred  to  Union  Hotel  Hospital,  where  five  of  the  nurses  being  at 
that  time  laid  up  by  illness,  her  duties  became  unusually  arduous. 

Since  her  former  labors"  here  the  hospital  had  been  closed, 
refitted,  and  reopened  under  every  way  improved  auspices.  The 
"  boys"  found  themselves  in  every  respect  so  kindly  cared  for,  and 
so  surrounded  by  home-like  experience  that  it  was  with  great 
regret  they  saw  the  hospital  broken  up,  in  March. 

Miss  Mitchell's  inclination  would  then,  as  often  before,  have 
led  her  to  the  front,  but  she  was  forced  to  obey  orders,  "  soldier 
like/7  and  found  herself  transferred  to  Knight  Hospital,  Xew 
Haven,  as  the  next  scene  of  her  labors.  Here  she  remained  three 
months  actively  and  usefully  employed,  but  at  the  end  of  that 


424  WOMAN'S  WOKK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

time  she  had  become  so  worn  out  with  her  long  continued  and 
arduous  services,  as  to  feel  compelled  to  resign  her  position  as 
army  nurse.  She  soon  after  accepted  a  desirable  situation  in  the 
Treasury  Department,  upon  the  duties  of  which  she  entered  in 
July,  1863. 

Miss  Mitchell  has  never  quite  reconciled  her  conscience  to  this 
act,  which  she  fears  was  too  much  tinged  with  selfishness  and 
induced  by  interested  motives.  Feeling  thus,  she  again  enlisted 
as  army  nurse  after  a  few  months,  resolving  never  again  to  aban 
don  the  service,  while  the  war  continued  and  strength  was  given 
her  to  labor. 

This  was  in  the  beginning  of  May,  1864,  and  she  was  imme 
diately  sent  to  Fredericksburg  to  assist  in  caring  for  the  wounded 
from  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness.  The  scenes  and  labors  of  that 
terrible  period  are  beyond  description.  Miss  Mitchell  was  amidst 
them  all,  and  like  an  angel  of  mercy  made  herself  everywhere 
useful  to  the  crowds  of  ghastly  sufferers  from  those  fields  of  awful 
carnage,  which  marked  the  onward  march  of  Grant  to  victory, 
and  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

When  our  army  left  Fredericksburg,  most  of  the  wounded 
were  transferred  to  Washington,  Miss  Mitchell  would  again  have 
preferred  to  go  to  the  front,  but  obeyed  orders,  and  went  instead 
to  Judiciary  Square  Hospital,  Washington,  where  she  found  many 
of  her  former  patients.  After  she  had  spent  one  day  there,  she 
would  not  willingly  have  left  those  poor  men  whom  she  found  so 
greatly  needing  a  woman's  care.  For  weeks  the  mortality  was 
fearful,  and  she  found  herself  surrounded  by  the  dead  and  dying, 
but  gradually  this  was  lessened,  and  she  became  engaged  in  the 
more  delightful  duty  of  superintending  the  improvement  of  con 
valescents,  and  watching  the  return  to  health  of  many  a  brave 
hero  who  had  perhaps  sacrificed  limbs,  and  well-nigh  life,  in  the 
service  of  his  country.  Here  she  remained,  with  ever-increasing 
satisfaction  in  her  labors,  until  the  final  closing  of  the  Hospital 
in  June,  1865. 


ELLEN    E.  MITCHELL.  425 

Here  also  ended  her  army  services,  with  the  occasion  for  them. 
She  had  rendered  them  joyfully,  and  she  resigned  them  with 
regret  and  sadness  at  parting  with  those  who  had  so  long  been 
her  charge,  and  whom  she  would  probably  see  no  more  forever. 
But  in  all  joy  or  sadness,  in  all  her  life,  she  will  not  cease  to 
remember  with  delight  and  gratitude  how  she  was  enabled  to 
minister  to  the  suffering,  and  thus  perform  a  woman's  part  in  the 
great  struggle  which  redeemed  our  country  from  slavery,  and 
made  us  truly  a  free  people. 

Few  have  done  better  service,  for  few  have  been  so  peculiarly 
adapted  to  their  work.  In  all  she  gratefully  acknowledges  the 
aid  and  sustaining  sympathy  of  her  friends  in  New  Milford,  Pa., 
and  elsewhere,  to  which  she  was  so  greatly  indebted  for  the  ability 
to  minister  with  comforts  to  the  sufferers  under  her  charge. 

As  these  lines  are  written  some  letters  from  a  soldier  who  was 
long  under  her  kind  care  in  Washington,  lie  upon  the  writer's  table 
with  their  appreciative  mention  of  this  excellent  woman;  which 
coming  from  one  who  knew  and  experienced  her  goodness,  may 
well  be  regarded  as  the  highest  testimony  of  it.  Here  is  one  brief 
extract  therefrom. 

"As  for  Miss  Mitchell  herself — she  has  a  cheerful  courage, 
faith  and  patience  which  take  hold  of  the  duties  of  this  place 
with  a  will  that  grasps  the  few  amenities  and  pleasures  found 
here,  and  works  them  all  up  into  sunshine;  and  looks  over  and 
beyond  the  fatiguing  work,  and  unavoidable  brutalities  of  the 
present.  Do  we  not  call  this  happiness?  Happiness  is  not  to  be 
pitied — nor  is  she !" 

In  another  place  he  speaks  of  her  unswerving,  calm  devo 
tion — her  entire  self-abnegation,  as  beyond  all  he  has  seen  of  the 
like  traits  elsewhere.  And  still  there  were  many  devoted  women 
— perhaps  many  Ellen  Mitchells!  Again  he  compares  the 
hospital  work  of  Miss  Mitchell  and  her  fellow-laborers  with  that 
of  the  sisters  of  charity,  in  whose  care  he  had  previously  been — 
the  one  human,  alert,  sympathizing — not  loving  sin,  nor  sinful 

54 


426  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

men,  but  laboring  for  them,  sacrificing  for  them,  pardoning  them 
as  Christ  does — the  other  working  with  machine-like  accuracy, 
but  with  as  little  apparent  emotion,  showing  none  in  fact  beyond 
a  prudish  shrinking  from  these  sufferers  from  the  outer  world, 
of  which  they  know  nothing  but  have  only  heard  of  its  wicked 
ness.  The  contrast  is  powerful,  and  shows  Miss  Mitchell  and  her 
friends  in  fairest  colors. 


MISS    JESSIE    HOME. 


ESSIE  HOME  was  a  native  of  Scotland.  No  ties 
bound  her  to  this,  her  adopted  land.  No  relative  of 
hers,  resided  upon  its  soil.  She  was  alone — far  from 
kindred  and  the  friends  of  her  early  youth.  But  the 
country  of  her  adoption  had  become  dear  to  her.  She  loved  it 
with  the  ardor  and  earnestness  which  were  a  part  of  her  nature, 
and  she  was  willing,  nay  anxious,  to  devote  herself  to  its  service. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  Miss  Home  was  engaged  in 
a  pleasant  and  lucrative  pursuit,  which  she  abandoned  that  she 
might  devote  herself  to  the  arduous  and  ill-paid  duties  of  a  hos 
pital  nurse. 

She  entered  the  service  early  in  the  war,  and  became  one  of  the 
corps  of  Government  nurses  attached  to  the  hospitals  in  the 
vicinity  of  Washington.  Like  others,  regularly  enlisted,  and 
under  orders  from  Miss  Dix,  the  Government  Superintendent  of 
nurses,  she  was  transferred  from  point  to  point  and  from  hospital 
to  hospital,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  service  required.  But  she 
had  only  to  be  known  to  be  appreciated,  and  her  companions,  her 
patients,  and  the  surgeons  under  whom  she  worked,  were  equally 
attached  to  her,  and  loud  in  her  praises.  She  entered  into  her 
work  with  her  whole  soul — untiring,  faithful,  of  a  buoyant  tem 
perament,  she  possessed  a  peculiar  power  of  winning  the  love  and 
confidence  of  all  with  whom  she  came  in  contact. 

She  was  quite  dependent  upon  her  own  resources,  and  in  giving 
herself  to  the  cause  yielded  up  a  profitable  employment  and  with 
it  her  means  of  livelihood.  Yet  she  denied  herself  all  luxuries, 

427 


428 

everything  but  the  merest  necessities,  that  out  of  the  pittance  of 
pay  received  from  the  Government,  out  of  the  forty  cents  per  day 
with  which  her  labors  were  rewarded,  she  might  save  something 
for  the  wants  of  the  suffering  ones  under  her  care. 

And  be  it  remembered  always,  that  in  this  work  it  was  not 
alone  the  well-born  and  the  wealthy  who  made  sacrifices,  and 
gave  grand  gifts.  Not  from  the  sacrifice  of  gauds  and  frippery 
did  the  humble  charities  of  these  hired  nurses  come,  but  from  the 
yielding  up  of  a  thousand  needed  comforts  for  themselves,  and 
the  forgetfulness  of  their  own  wants,  in  supplying  the  mightier 
wants  of  the  suffering.  It  is  impossible  to  mention  them  with 
words  of  praise  beyond  their  merit. 

For  about  two  years  Miss  Home  labored  thus  untiringly  and 
faithfully,  always  alert,  cheerful,  active.  During  this  time  she 
had  drawn  to  herself  hosts  of  attached  friends. 

At  the  end  of  that  period  she  fell  a  martyr  to  her  exertions  in 
the  cause  to  which  she  had  so  nobly  devoted  herself. 

When  attacked  with  illness,  shef  must  have  felt  all  the  horrors 
of  desolation — for  she  was  without  means  or  home.  But  Provi 
dence  did  not  desert  her  in  this  last  dread  hour  of  trial.  Miss 
Rebecca  Bergen  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who  had  learned  her  worth 
by  a  few  months'  hospital  association,  deemed  it  a  privilege  to  re 
ceive  the  sufferer  at  her  own  home,  and  to  watch  over  the  last  hours 
of  this  noble  life  as  it  drew  to  a  close,  ministering  to  her  suffer 
ings  with  all  the  kindness  and  affection  of  a  sister,  and  smoothing 
her  passage  to  the  grave. 

Thus,  those,  who  without  thought  for  themselves,  devote  their 
lives  and  energies  to  the  welfare  of  others,  are  often  unexpect 
edly  cared  for  in  the  hour  of  their  own  extremity,  and  find  friends 
springing  up  to  protect  them,  and  to  supply  their  wants  in  the 
day  of  their  need.  Far  from  kindred  and  her  native  land,  this 
devoted  woman  thus  found  friends  and  kindly  care,  and  the 
stranger  hands  that  laid  her  in  an  alien  grave  were  warm  with  the 
emotion  of  loving  hearts. 


M.  VANCE   AND    M.  A.  BLACKMAR. 


ISS  MAKY  VANCE  is  a  Pennsylvania!!.  Before  the 
War,  she  was  teaching  among  the  Indians  of  Kansas 
or  Nebraska,  but  it  becoming  unsafe  there,  she  was 
forced  to  leave.  She  came  to  Miss  Dix,  who  sent  her  to 
a  Baltimore  Hospital,  in  which  she  rendered  efficient  service,  as 
she  afterward  did  in  Washington  and  Alexandria.  In  Septem 
ber,  1863,  she  went  to  the  General  Hospital,  Gettysburg,  where 
she  was  placed  in  charge  of  six  wards,  and  no  more  indefatigable, 
faithful  and  judicious  nurse  was  to  be  found  on  those  grounds. 
She  labored  on  continuously,  going  from  point  to  point,  as  our 
army  progressed  towards  Richmond,  at  Fredericksburg,  suffering 
much  from  want  of  strengthening  and  proper  food,  but  never 
murmuring,  doing  a  vast  amount  of  work,  in  such  a  quiet  and 
unpretending  manner,  as  to  attract  the  attention  from  the  look 
ers-on.  Few,  but  the  recipients  of  her  kindness,  knew  her  worth. 
At  City  Point,  she  was  stationed  in  the  Second  Corps  Hospital, 
where  she,  as  usual,  won  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  Surgeons 
and  all  connected  with  her. 

Miss  Vance  labored  the  whole  term  of  the  War,  with  but  three 
weeks'  furlough,  in  all  that  time.  A  record,  that  no  other  woman 
can  give,  and  but  few  soldiers. 

Miss  Blackmar,  one  of  Michigan's  worthy  daughters,  was  one 
of  the  youngest  of  the  band  of  Hospital  nurses.  She,  for  ten 
months,  labored  unceasingly  at  City  Point.  More  than  usually 
skilful  in  wound  dressing,  she  rendered  efficient  service  to  her 

429 


430  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  AVAR. 

Surgeons,  as  well  as  in  saving  many  poor  boys  much  suffering 
from  the  rough  handling  of  inexperienced  soldier-nurses.  A  lad 
was  brought  to  her  Wards,  with  a  wound  in  the  temple,  which, 
in  the  course  of  time,  ate  into  the  artery.  This  she  had  feared, 
and  was  always  especially  careful  in  watching  and  attending  to 
him.  But,  in  her  absence,  a  hemorrhage  took  place,  the  nurse 
endeavored  to  staunch  the  blood,  but  at  last,  becoming  frightened, 
sent  for  a  Surgeon.  When  she  came  back  to  the  Ward,  there 
lay  her  boy  pale  and  exhausted,  life  almost  gone.  But  she  per 
severed  in  her  efforts,  and  at  last  had  the  satisfaction  of  witness 
ing  his  recovery. 

At  City  Point,  Miss  Vance  and  Miss  Blackmar  were  tent-mates, 
and  intimate  friends — both  noted  for  their  untiring  devotion  to 
their  work,  their  prudent  and  Christian  deportment.  As  an  in 
stance  of  the  wearying  effects  of  the  labors  of  a  Hospital  nurse, 
Mrs.  Husband,  who  was  the  firm  friend,  and  at  City  Point, 
the  associate  of  these  two  young  ladies,  relates  the  following; 
these  two  ladies,  wearied  as  usual,  retired  one  very  cold  night, 
Miss  Blackmar  taking  a  hot  brick  with  her,  for  her  feet.  They 
slept  the  sound  sleep  of  exhaustion  for  some  time,  when  Miss 
Vance  struggled  into  consciousness,  with  a  sensation  of  smother 
ing,  and  found  that  the  tent  was  filled  with  smoke.  After  re 
peatedly  calling  her  companion,  she  was  forced  to  rise  and  shake 
her,  telling  her  that  she  must  be  on  fire.  This  at  last  aroused 
Miss  Blackmar,  who  found  that  the  brick  had  burned  through  the 
cloth  in  which  it  was  wrapped,  the  straw-bed  and  two  army  blan 
kets.  By  the  application  of  water,  the  fire  was  quenched,  and 
after  airing  the  tent,  they  were  soon  sleeping  as  soundly  as  ever. 
But,  in  the  morning,  Miss  Blackmar,  to  her  consternation,  found 
that  her  feet  and  ankles  were  badly  burned,  covered  with  blisters 
and  very  painful,  though  her  sleep  had  been  too  sound  to  feel  it 
before. 


\1lSS.    [  I  AT  TIE    A.  DAD  A 


H.    A.    DAD  A 


HALL, 


IUTTIE  M  1U 


crifice. 


their  t\\t\.  c< 


At  noon,  on  Mf»m"i 
received  instriictio^  t> 
tlu-ir  iuinre  labors  UI 
Washington 3  with  or-<lv 
'..'.•ir  found  them  i»uii «.*.-•  i. 


-.via   an-l  -.Mi-*  llfl 
•;:»j.inK-v  to  tho  §*•<.»«.  -''t 

?Hf'%-  UK'k  the  Trai1^  Y^; 
i'tes  Dix.  Tnes(l?iy  ?<•  —v  • 
excitement  wluf.ii  * 


H.    A,    DADA    AND    S.    E.    HALL. 


ISS  HATTIE  A.  DADA,  and  Miss  Susan  E.  Hall, 
were  among  the  most  earnest  and  persistent  workers  in 
a  field  which  presented  so  many  opportunities  for  labor 
and  sacrifice.  Both  offered  themselves  to  the  Women's 
Central  Association  of  Belief,  New  York,  immediately  on  the 
formation  of  that  useful  organization  for  any  service,  or  in  any 
capacity,  where  their  aid  could  be  made  available.  Both  had 
formerly  been  employed  by  one  of  the  Missionary  Societies,  in 
mission  labors  among  the  Indians  of  the  Southwest,  and  were 
eminently  fitted  for  any  sphere  of  usefulness  which  the  existing 
condition  of  our  country  could  present  to  woman. 

They  were  received  by  the  Association,  and  requested  to  join 
the  class  of  women  who,  with  similar  motives  and  intentions, 
were  attending  the  series  of  lectures  and  surgical  instructions 
which  was  to  prepare  them  for  the  duties  of  nurses  in  the  army 
hospitals. 

On  Sunday,  July  21st,  1861,  a  memorable  day,  the  first  battle 
of  Bull  Run  took  place.  On  the  following  day,  the  22d,  the 
disastrous  tidings  of  defeat  and  rout  was  received  in  New  York, 
and  the  country  was  thrilled  with  pain  and  horror. 

At  noon,  on  Monday,  the  22d,  Miss  Dada  and  Miss  Hall 
received  instructions  to  prepare  for  their  journey  to  the  scene  of 
their  future  labors,  and  at  six  P.  M.  they  took  the  train  for 
Washington,  with  orders  to  report  to  Miss  Dix.  Tuesday  morn 
ing  found  them  amidst  all  the  terrible  excitement  which  reigned 

431 


432  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

in  thai  city.  v  The  only  question  Miss  Dix  asked,  was,  "  Are  you 
ready  to  work?"  and  added,  "  You  are  needed  in  Alexandria.7' 

And  toward  Alexandria  they  were  shortly  proceeding.  There 
were  apprehensions  that  the  enemy  might  pursue  our  retreating 
troops,  of  whom  they  met  many  as  they  crossed  the  Long  Bridge, 
and  passed  the  fortifications  all  filled  with  soldiers  watching  for 
the  coming  foe  who  might  then  so  easily  have  invaded  the  Fede 
ral  City. 

In  some  cabins  by  the  road-side  they  first  saw  some  wounded 
men,  to  whom  they  paused  to  administer  words  of  cheer,  and  a 
"  cup  of  cold  water."  They  were  in  great  apprehension  that  the 
road  might  not  be  safe,  and  a  trip  to  Richmond,  in  the  capacity 
of  prisoners  was  by  no  means  to  be  desired. 

At  last  they  reached  Alexandria,  and  in  a  dark  stone  building 
on  Washington  Street,  formerly  a  seminary,  found  their  hospital. 
They  were  denied  admittance  by  the  sentinel,  but  the  surgeon  in 
charge  was  called,  and  welcomed  them  to  their  new  duties. 

There  they  lay,  the  wounded,  some  on  beds,  many  on  mattresses 
spread  upon  the  floor,  covered  with  the  blood  from  their  wounds, 
and  the  dust  of  that  burning  summer  battle-field,  many  of  them 
still  in  their  uniforms.  The  retreat  was  so  unexpected,  the 
wounded  so  numerous,  and  the  helpers  so  few,  that  all  were  at 
once  extremely  busy  in  bringing  order  and  comfort  to  that  scene 
of  suffering. 

Their  labors  here  were  exceedingly  arduous.  No  soldiers  were 
detailed  as  attendants  for  the  first  few  weeks,  and  even  the  most 
menial  duties  fell  upon  these  ladies.  Sometimes  a  contraband 
was  assigned  them  as  assistant,  but  he  soon  tired  of  steady  em 
ployment  and  left.  They  had  little  sleep  and  food  that  was 
neither  tempting  nor  sufficient.  So  busy  were  they  that  two 
weeks  elapsed  before  Miss  Dada,  whose  letters  furnish  most  of 
the  material  for  this  sketch,  found  time  to  write  home,  and  inform 
her  anxious  friends  "where  she  was." 

A  busy  month  passed  thus,  and  then  the  numbers  in  the  hos- 


MISS   HATTIE   A.  DADA   AND   SUSAN   E.  HALL.  435 

throat,  could  take  no  nourishment,  nor  scarcely  breathe.  His 
sufferings  were  intense,  and  his  restlessness  kept  him  constantly 
in  motion  as  long  as  the  strength  for  a  movement  remained.  But 
at  last,  he  silently  turned  his  face  to  the  wall,  and  so  died.  An 
other,  a  victim  of  lockjaw,  only  yielded  to  the  influence  of  chlo 
roform.  Another,  whom  the  surgeons  could  only  reach  the 
second  day,  had  his  arm  amputated,  but  too  late.  Even  while 
he  believed  himself  on  the  road  to  recovery,  bad  symptoms  had 
intervened;  and  while  with  grateful  voice  he  was  planning  how 
he  would  assist  Miss  Dada  as  soon  as  he  was  well  enough,  in  the 
care  of  other  patients,  the  hand  of  death  was  laid  upon  him,  and 
he  soon  passed  away. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  heart-rending  scenes  and  incidents  through 
which  these  devoted  ladies  passed. 

The  month  of  November  found  Miss  Dada  at  Harper's  Ferry. 
Miss  Hall  had  been  at  Antietam,.but  the  friends  had  decided  to 
be  no  longer  separated. 

They  found  that  the  Medical  Director  of  the  Twelfth  Army 
Corps  was  just  opening  a  hospital  there,  and  the  next  day  the 
sick  and  wounded  from  the  regimental  hospitals  were  brought  in. 
They  had  suffered  for  lack  of  care,  but  though  the  new  hospital 
was  very  scantily  furnished,  they  found  that  cause  of  trouble 
removed.  Many  of  them  had  long  been  ill,  and  want  of  clean 
liness  and  vermin  had  helped  to  reduce  them  to  extreme  emacia 
tion.  Their  filthy  clothes  were  replaced  by  clean  ones,  and 
burned  or  thrown  into  the  river,  their  heads  shaven,  and  their 
revolting  appearance  removed.  But  many  a  youth  whom  sick 
ness  and  suffering  had  given  the  appearance  of  old  age,  suc 
cumbed  to  disease  and  suffering,  and  joined  the  long  procession 
to  the  tomb. 

These  were  sad  clays,  the  men  were  dying  rapidly.  One  day  a 
middle-aged  woman  came  in  inquiring  for  her  son.  Miss  Dada 
took  from  her  pocket  a  slip  of  paper  containing  the  name  of  one 
who  had  died  a  day  or  two  previously — it  was  the  name  of  the 


436  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  AYAH. 

son  of  this  mother.  She  sought  the  surgeon,  and  together  they 
undertook  the  painful  task  of  conveying  to  the  mother  the  tidings 
that  her  visit  was  in  vain.  Poor  mother !  How  many,  like  her, 
returned  desolate  to  broken  homes,  from  such  a  quest ! 

May  and  June,  1863,  Miss  Dada  and  Miss  Hall  spent  at 
Acquia  Creek,  in  care  of  the  wounded  from  the  battle  of  Chan- 
cellorsville,  and  the  8th  of  July  found  them  at  Gettysburg — Miss 
Dada  at  the  hospital  of  the  Twelfth  Army  Corps,  at  a  little  dis 
tance  from  the  town,  and  Miss  Hall  at  that  of  the  First  Army 
Corps,  which  was  within  the  town.  The  hospital  of  the  Twelfth 
Army  Corps  was  at  a  farm-house.  The  house  and  barns  were 
filled  with  wounded,  and  tents  were  all  around,  crowded  with 
sufferers,  among  whom  were  many  wounded  rebel  prisoners,  wbo 
were  almost  overwhelmed  with  astonishment  and  gratitude  to  find 
that  northern  ladies  would  extend  to  them  the  same  care  as  to  the 
soldiers  of  their  own  army. 

The  story  of  Gettysburg,  and  the  tragical  days  that  followed, 
has  been  too  often  told  to  need  repetition.  The  history  of  the 
devotion  of  Northern  women  to  their  country's  defenders,  and  of 
their  sacrifices  and  labors  was  illustrated  in  brightest  characters 
there.  Miss  Hall  and  Miss  Dada  remained  there  as  long  as  their 
services  could  be  made  available. 

In  December,  1863,  they  were  ordered  to  Murfreesboro',  Ten 
nessee,  once  a  flourishing  town,  but  showing  everywhere  the 
devastations  of  war.  Two  Seminaries,  and  a  College,  large  blocks 
of  stores,  and  a  hotel,  had  been  taken  for  hospitals,  and  were  now 
filled  with  sick  and  wounded  men.  A  year  had  passed  since  the 
awful  battle  of  Stone  River, — the  field  of  which,  now  a  wide 
waste  lay  near  the  town — but  the  hospitals  had  never  been 
empty. 

When  they  arrived,  they  reported  to  the  medical  director,  who 
"did  not  care  whether  they  stayed  or  not/7  but,  "if  they  re 
mained  wished  them  to  attend  exclusively  to  the  preparation  of 
the  Special  Diet."  They  received  only  discouraging  words  from 


MISS   HATTIE   A.  DADA   AND   SUSAN   E.  HALL.  437 

all  they  met.  They  found  shelter  for  the  night  at  the  house  of  a 
rebel  woman,  and  were  next  day  assigned — Miss  Hall  to  No.  1 
Hospital,  Miss  Dada  to  No.  3. 

When  they  reported,  the  surgeon  of  No.  1  Hospital,  for  their 
encouragement,  informed  them  that  the  chaplain  thought  they 
had  better  not  remain.  Miss  Dada  also  was  coldly  received,  and 
it  was  evident  that  the  Surgeons  and  chaplains  were  very  comfor 
table,  and  desired  no  outside  interference.  They  believed,  how 
ever,  that  there  was  a  work  for  them  to  do,  and  decided  to  re 
main. 

Miss  Dada  found  in  the  wards  more  than  one  familiar  face 
from  the  Twelfth  Army  Corps,  and  the  glad  enthusiasm  of  her 
welcome  by  the  patients,  contrasted  with  the  chilling  reception 
of  the  officers. 

Most  of  these  men  had  been  wounded  at  Lookout  Mountain,  a 
few  days  before,  but  many  others  had  been  suffering  ever  since 
the  bloody  battle  of  Chickamauga. 

Miss  Hall  was  able  to  commence  her  work  at  once,  but  Miss 
Dada  was  often  exhorted  to  patience,  while  waiting  three  long 
weeks  for  a  stove,  before  she  could  do  more  than,  by  the  favor 
of  the  head  cook  of  the  full  diet  kitchen,  occasionally  prepare  at 
his  stove,  some  small  dishes  for  the  worst  cases. 

Here  the  winter  wore  away.  Many  a  sad  tale  of  the  desola 
tions  of  war  was  poured  into  their  ears,  by  the  suffering  Union 
women  who  had  lost  their  husbands,  fathers,  sons,  in  the  wild 
warfare  of  the  country  in  which  they  lived.  And  many  a  scene 
of  sorrow  and  suffering  they  witnessed. 

In  January,  they  had  a  pleasant  call  from  Dr.  M ,  one 

of  the  friends  they  had  known  at  Gettysburg.  This  gentleman, 
in  conversation  with  the  medical  director,  told  him  he  knew  two 
of  the  ladies  there.  The  reply  illustrates  the  peculiar  position 
in  which  they  were  placed.  "  Ladies !"  he  answered  with  a  sneer, 
"  We  have  no  ladies  here !  A  hospital  is  no  place  for  a  lady. 
We  have  some  women  here,  who  are  cooks !" 


438 

But  they  remembered  that  one  has  said — "The  lowest  post  of 
service  is  the  highest  place  of  honor,"  and  that  Christ  had  humil 
iated  himself  to  wash  the  feet  of  his  disciples. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  ensuing  May,  they  went  to  Chatta 
nooga.  They  were  most  kindly  received  by  the  surgeons,  and 
found  much  to  be  done.  Car-loads  of  wounded  were  daily  com 
ing  from  the  front,  all  who  could  bear  removal  were  sent  further 
north,  and  only  the  worst  cases  retained  at  Chattanooga.  They 
were  all  in  good  spirits,  however,  and  rejoicing  at  Sherman's  suc 
cessful  advance — even  those  upon  whom  death  had  set  his  dark 
seal. 

Miss  Dada  often  rejoiced,  while  here,  in  the  kindness  of  her 
friends  at  home,  which  enabled  her  to  procure  for  the  sick  those 
small,  but  at  that  place,  costly  luxuries  which  their  condition 
demanded. 

As  the  season  advanced  to  glowing  summer,  the  mortality 
became  dreadful.  In  her  hospital  alone,  not  a  large  one,  and  con 
taining  but  seven  hundred  beds,  there  were  two  hundred  and 
sixty-one  deaths  in  the  month  of  June,  and  there  were  from  five 
to  twenty  daily.  These  were  costly  sacrifices,  often  of  the  best, 
noblest,  most  promising, — for  Miss  Dada  records — "Daily  I  see 
devoted  Christian  youths  dying  on  the  altar  of  our  country." 

With  the  beginning  of  November  came  busy  times,  as  the  cars 
daily  came  laden  with  their  freight  of  suffering  from  Atlanta. 
On  the  26th,  Miss  Dada  records,  "  One  year  to-day  since  Hooker's 
men  fought  above  the  clouds  on  Lookout.  To-day  as  I  look 
upon  the  grand  old  mountain  the  sun  shines  brightly  on  the 
graves  of  those  who  fell  there,  and  all  is  quiet." 

Again,  after  the  gloomy  winter  had  passed,  she  writes,  in 
March,  1865,  "Many  cases  of  measles  are  being  brought  in, 
mostly  new  soldiers,  many  conscripts,  and  so  down-spirited  if  they 
get  sick.  It  was  a  strange  expression  a  poor  fellow  made  the 
other  day,  c  You  are  the  God-blessedesi  woman  I  ever  saw/  He 
only  lived  a  few  days  after  being  brought  to  the  hospital." 


MISS    HATTIE    A.  DADA   AND   SUSAN   E.  HALL.  439 

Their  work  of  mercy  was  now  well-nigh  over,  as  the  necessity 
for  it  seemed  nearly  ended.  Patients  were  in  May  being  mustered 
out  of  the  service,  and  the  hospitals  thinning.  Miss  Dada  and 
Miss  Hall  thought  they  could  be  spared,  and  started  eastward. 
But  when  in  Illinois,  word  reached  them  that  all  the  ladies  but 
one  had  left,  and  help  was  needed,  and  Miss  Dada  returned  to 
Chattanooga.  Here  she  was  soon  busy,  for,  though  the  war  was 
over,  there  were  still  many  sick,  and  death  often  claimed  a 
victim. 

Miss  Dada  remained  till  the  middle  of  September,  engaged  in 
her  duties,  when,  having  given  more  than  four  years  to  the  service 
of  her  country,  she  at  last  took  her  leave  of  hospital-life,  and  re 
turned  to  home  and  its  peaceful  pleasures. 

Before  leaving  she  visited  the  historical  places  of  the  vicinity 
— saw  a  storm  rise  over  Mission  Ridge,  and  heard  the  thunders 
of  heaven's  artillery  where  once  a  hundred  guns  belched  forth 
their  fires  and  swept  our  brave  boys  to  destruction.  She  climbed 
Lookout,  amidst  its  vail  of  clouds,  and  visited  "Picket  Rock," 
where  is  the  spring  at  which  our  troops  obtained  water  the  night 
after  the  battle,  and  the  "Point"  where,  in  the  early  morn,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  proclaimed  to  the  watching  hosts  below,  that 
they  were  victors. 


MRS.    SARAH    P.    EDSON. 


RS.  EDSON  is  a  native  of  Fleming,  Cayuga  County, 
New  York,  where  her  earlier  youth  was  passed.  At 
ten  years  of  age  she  removed  with  her  parents  to  Ohio, 
but  after  a  few  years  again  returned  to  her  native  place. 
Her  father  died  while  she  was  yet  young,  and  her  childhood  and 
youth  were  clouded  by  many  sorrows. 

Gifted  with  a  warm  imagination,  and  great  sensitiveness  of  feel 
ing,  at  an  early  age  she  learned  to  express  her  thoughts  in  written 
words.  Her  childhood  was  not  a  happy  one,  and  she  thus  found 
relief  for  a  thousand  woes.  At  length  some  of  her  writings  found 
their  way  into  print. 

She  spent  several  years  as  a  teacher,  and  was  married  and  re 
moved  to  Pontiac,  Michigan,  in  1845.  During  her  married  life 
she  resided  in  several  States,  but  principally  in  Maysville,  Ken 
tucky. 

Here  she  became  well  known  as  a  writer,  but  her  productions, 
both  in  prose  and  poetry,  were  usually  written  under  various 
nomines  de  plume,  and  met  very  general  acceptance. 

She  at  various  times  edited  journals  devoted  to  temperance  and 
general  literature  in  the  Western  States,  and  became  known  as 
possessing  a  keenly  observing  and  philosophic  mind.  This  ex 
perience,  perhaps,  prepared  and  eminently  fitted  her  for  the  service 
into  which  she  entered  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  and  ena 
bled  her  to  comprehend  and  provide  for  the  necessities  and  emer 
gencies  of  "the  situation." 

440 


MRS.  SAEAH    P.  EDSON.  441 

Mrs.  Edson  arrived  in  Washington  November  1st,  1861,  and 
commenced  service  as  nurse  in  Columbia  College  Hospital.  She 
remained  there  serving  with  great  acceptance  until  early  in  March 
when  the  army  was  about  to  move  and  a  battle  was  in  anticipa 
tion,  when  by  arrangement  with  the  Division  Surgeon,  Dr. 
Palmer,  she  joined  Sumner's  Division,  at  Camp  California,  Vir 
ginia,  where  she  was  to  remain  and  follow  to  render  her  services 
in  case  the  anticipation  was  verified.  The  enemy,  however,  had 
stolen  away,  and  "Quaker"  guns  being  the  only  armament  en 
countered,  her  services  were  not  needed. 

She  soon  after  received  an  appointment  from  Surgeon -General 
Finley  to  proceed  to  Winchester,  Virginia,  to  assist  in  the  care  of 
the  wounded  from  General  Banks'  army.  She  found  the  hos 
pital  there  in  a  most  deplorable  condition.  Gangrene  was  in  all 
the  wards,  the  filth  and  foulness  of  the  atmosphere  were  fearful. 
Men  were  being  swept  off  by  scores,  and  all  things  were  in  such 
a  state  as  must  ever  result  from  inexperience,  and  perhaps  incom 
petence,  on  the  part  of  those  in  charge.  Appliances  and  stores 
were  scanty,  and  many  of  the  surgeons  and  persons  in  charge, 
though  doing  the  least  that  was  possible,  were  totally  unfit  for 
their  posts  through  want  of  experience  and  training. 

The  Union  Hotel  Hospital  was  placed  in  charge  of  Mrs.  Edson, 
and  the  nurses  who  accompanied  her  were  assigned  to  duty  there. 
It  was  to  be  thoroughly  cleansed  and  rendered  as  wholesome  as 
possible. 

The  gratitude  of  the  men  for  their  changed  condition,  in  a  few 
days  amply  attested  the  value  of  the  services  of  herself  and  asso 
ciates,  and  demonstrated  the  fact  that  women  have  an  important 
place  in  a  war  like  ours. 

Mrs.  Edson  next  proceeded  to  join  the  army  before  Yorktown, 
about  the  1st  of  May,  1862,  and  was  attached  to  the  Hospital  of 
General  Stunner's  corps.  She  arrived  the  day  following  the  battle 
of  Williamsburg,  and  learning  that  her  son  was  among  the 
wounded  left  in  a  hospital  several  miles  from  Yorktown,  she  at 

56 


army  wagons  and  transported  over  the  rough  roads  from 
the  morning  till  six  in  the  evening.     Arriving  exhausted  1 
terrible  sufferings,  they  found  no  provision  made  for  thei: 
tion.     That  was  a  dreadful  day,  and  to  an  inexperienced  e\ 
a  sympathetic  heart  the  suffering  seemed  frightful ! 

The  21st  of  May,  Mrs.  Edson  went  to  Fortress  Monroe,  t 
for  her  son  and  others,  remaining  a  week.     From  thence  sh 
ceeded  to  White  House  and  the  "front."      Arriving  hei 
enemy  were  expected,  and  it  was  forbidden  to  land.     At  da; 
the  "  only  woman  on  board"  was  anxiously  inquiring  if  thei 
any  suffering  to  relieve.     Learning  that  some  wounded 
been  brought  in,  she  left  the  boat  notwithstanding  the  pr| 
tion,  and  found  over  three  hundred  bleeding  and  starved 
lying  upon  the  ground.     The  Sanitary  Commission  bos 
gone,  and  no  supplies  were  left  but  coffee  and  a  little  rice] 
she  stepped  ashore,  a  soldier  with  a  shattered  arm  came  up  f 
almost  timidly,  and  with  white  trembling  lips  asked  her 
could  give  them  something  to  eat — they  had  lost  everything 
days  before,  and  had  been  without  food  since.     What  an  appeal 
to  the  sympathy  of  a  warm  heart ! 

It  was  feared  that  no  food  could  be  obtained,  but  after  great 
search  a  barrel  of  cans  of  beef  was  found.  Some  camp  kettles 
were  gathered  up,  and  a  fire  kindled.  In  the  shortest  possible 
time  beef  soup  and  coffee  were  passing  round  among  these 
delighted  men.  Their  gratitude  was  beyond  words.  At 
four  o'clock,  that  afternoon,  the  last  man  was  put  on  board 


MRS.  SARAH    P.  EDSOX.  443 

the  ship  which  was  to  convey  them  within  reach  of  supplies  and 
care. 

Mrs.  Edson  was  left  alone.  One  steamer  only  of  the  quarter 
master's  department  remained.  The  quartermaster  had  no  author 
ity  to  admit  her  on  board.  But  in  view  of  the  momently  expected 
arrival  of  the  enemy  he  told  her  to  go  on  board  and  remain, 
promising  not  to  interfere  with  her  until  she  reached  Harrison's 
Landing.  And  this  was  all  that  could  be  gained  by  her  who  was 
so  busily  working  for  the  soldier — this  the  alternative  of  being 
left  to  the  tender  mercy  of  the  enemy. 

She  remained  at  Harrison's  Landing  until  the  12th  of  August, 
and  passed  through  all  the  terrible  and  trying  scenes  that  attended 
the  arrival  of  the  defeated,  demoralized,  and  depressed  troops  of 
McClellan's  army.  These  baffle  description.  Enough,  that  hands 
and  heart  were  full — full  of  work,  and  full  of  sympathy,  with  so 
much  frightful  suifering  all  around  her!  She  was  here  greatly 
aided  and  sustained  by  the  presence  and  help  of  that  excellent 
nan,  Chaplain  Arthur  B.  Fuller,  who  passed  away  to  his  reward 
long  ere  the  close  of  the  struggle,  into  which  he  had  entered  with 
so  true  an  appreciation  and  devotion.  Again,  here  as  everywhere, 
gratitude  for  kindness,  and  cheerfulness  in  suffering  marked  the 
conduct  of  the  poor  men  under  her  care. 

When  the  army  left  she  repaired  again  to  Fortress  Monroe, 
and  was  on  duty  there  at  Hygeia  Hospital  during  the  transit  of 
the  army. 

She  returned  to  Alexandria  the  30th  of  August,  and  almost 
immediately  heard  rumors  of  the  fighting  going  on  at  the  front. 
She  applied  for  permission  to  proceed  to  the  field,  but  was  in 
formed  that  the  army  was  retreating.  The  next  tidings  was  of 
the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  the  other  disastrous  conflicts 
of  Pope's  campaign.  As  she  could  not  go  to  the  front  to  give  aid 
and  comfort  to  that  small  but  heroic  army  in  its  retreat  she  did 
what  she  could  for  the  relief  of  any  sufferers  who  came  under  her 
notice,  until  the  news  of  the  conflict  at  Antietam  was  received, 


444  WOMAN'S  WOKK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

with  rumors  of  its  dreadful  slaughter.  Her  heart  was  fired  with 
anxiety  to  proceed  thither,  but  permission  was  again  denied  her, 
the  surgeon-general  replying  that  she  was  evidently  worn  out 
and  must  rest  for  a  time.  He  was  right,  for  on  the  ensuing  day 
she  was  seized  with  a  severe  illness  which  prevented  any  further 
exertion  for  many  weeks. 

During  the  slow  hours  of  convalescence  from  this  illness  she 
revolved  a  plan  for  systematizing  the  female  branch  of  the  relief 
service.  Her  idea  was  to  provide  a  home  for  volunteer  nurses, 
where  they  could  be  patiently  educated  and  instructed  in  the 
necessities  of  the  work  they  were  to  assume,  and  where  they  could 
retire  for  rest  when  needed,  or  in  the  brief  intervals  of  their 
labors. 

Her  first  labor  on  recovery  was  to  proceed  to  Warrenton  with 
supplies,  but  she  found  the  army  moving  and  the  sick  already  on 
board  the  cars.  She  did  what  was  possible  for  them  under  the 
circumstances.  The  trains  moved  off  and  she  was  left  to  wait 
for  one  that  was  to  convey  her  back  to  Alexandria.  This,  how 
ever,  was  cut  off  by  the  rebels,  and  she  found  herself  with  no 
resource  but  to  proceed  with  the  army  to  Acquia  Creek.  She 
records  that  she  reached  Acquia,  after  several  days,  and  a  new 
and  interesting  experience,  which  was  kindness  and  courtesy  from 
all  with  whom  she  came  in  contact. 

Immediately  after  her  return  to  Washington,  Mrs.  Edson 
attempted  to  systematize  her  plan  for  a  home  and  training  school 
for  nurses.  A  society  was  formed,  and  Mrs.  Caleb  B.  Smith  at 
first  (but  soon  after  in  consequence  of  her  resignation)  Mrs.  B.  F. 
Wade,  was  appointed  President,  and  Mrs.  Edson,  Secretary. 

Many  meetings  were  held.  The  attention  of  commanding  and 
medical  officers  was  drawn  to  the  plan.  Almost  unanimously 
they  expressed  approval  of  it. 

Mrs.  Edson  was  the  soul  of  the  work,  hers  was  the  guiding 
brain,  the  active  hand,  and  as  is  usual  in  similar  cases  most  of  the 
labor  fell  upon  her.  She  visited  the  army  at  Fredericksburg, 


MRS.  SAKAH   P.  EDSOX.  445 

and  carefully  examined  the  hospitals  to  ascertain  their  needs 
in  this  respect.  This  with  other  journeys  of  the  same  kind  occu 
pied  a  considerable  portion  of  the  winter. 

State  Relief  Societies  had  been  consulted  and  approved  the 
plan.  Mrs.  Edson  visited  the  Sanitary  Commission  and  laid  the 
plan  before  them,  but  while  they  admitted  the  necessity  of  a 
home  and  place  of  rest  for  nurses,  which  they  soon  after  estab 
lished,  they  regarded  a  training  school  for  them  unnecessary, 
believing  that  those  who  were  adapted  to  their  work  would  best 
acquire  the  needed  skill  in  it  in  the  hospital  itself,  and  that  their 
imperative  need  of  attendants  in  the  hospitals  and  in  the  depart 
ments  of  special  and  field  relief,  did  not  admit  of  the  delay 
required  to  educate  nurses  for  the  service. 

The  surgeon-general,  though  at  first  favorably  impressed  with 
the  idea,  on  more  mature  consideration  discouraged  it,  and  with 
held  his  approval  before  the  Senate  Committee,  who  had  a  bill 
before  them  for  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution.  Thus 
thwarted  in  the  prosecution  of  the  plan  on  which  she  had  set  her 
heart,  Mrs.  Edson  did  not  give  up  in  despair,  nor  did  she  suffer 
her  sympathy  and  zeal  in  its  prosecution  to  prevent  her  from 
engaging  in  what  she  rightly  regarded  as  the  paramount  work  of 
every  loyal  woman  who  could  enter  upon  it,  the  care  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  after  the  great  battles.  The  fearfully  disastrous 
battle  of  Fredericksburg  in  December,  1862,  called  her  to  the 
front,  and  she  was  for  several  weeks  at  Falmouth  caring  tenderly 
for  the  wounded  heroes  there.  This  good  work  accomplished  she 
returned  to  Washington,  and  thence  visited  New  York  city,  and 
made  earnest  endeavors  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  wealthy  and 
patriotic  in  this  movement.  She  was  familiar  with  Masonic  lite 
rature  and  with  the  spirit  of  Masonry.  Her  husband  had  been 
an  advanced  member  of  the  Order,  and  she  had  herself  taken  all 
the  "Adoptive  Degrees."  These  reasons  induced  her  to  seek  the 
aid  of  the  Order,  and  she  was  pleased  to  find  that  she  met  with 
much  encouragement.  The  "Army  Nurses'  Association"  was 


446  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

formed  in  New  York,  and  commenced  work  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Masons.  In  the  spring  of  1864,  when  Grant's  campaign 
commenced  with  the  terrible  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  Mrs. 
Edson  hastened  to  the  "  front."  Almost  immediately  the  sur 
geons  requested  her  to  send  for  ten  of  the  nurses  then  receiving 
instruction  as  part  of  her  class  at  Clinton  Hall,  New  York. 

She  did  so.  They  were  received,  transportation  found,  and 
rations  %nd  pay  granted.  And  they  were  found  to  be  valuable 
workers,  Mrs.  Edson  receiving  from  the  Surgeons  in  charge,  the 
highest  testimonials  of  their  usefulness.  She  had  at  first  men 
tioned  it  to  the  Surgeons  as  an  experiment,  and  said  that  funds 
and  nurses  would  not  be  wanting  if  it  proved  a  success.  The 
day  on  which  the  order  for  the  evacuation  of  Fredericksburg  was 
issued,  she  was  told  that  her  "  experiment  was  more  than  a  suc 
cess — it  was  a  triumph."  And  this  by  one  of  the  highest  offi 
cials  of  the  Medical  department. 

Eighty  more  nurses  were  at  once  ordered. 

The  interest  taken  by  the  Masons  in  this  movement,  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  "  Masonic  Mission,"  with  a  strong  "  Advisory 
Board,"  composed  of  leading  and  wealthy  Masons. 

Mrs.  Edson,  with  unquestioning  confidence  in  the  integrity  of 
Masons,  and  in  the  honor  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  given  the 
movement  the  great  strength  of  their  names,  continued  ardently 
carrying  out  her  plan.  More  nurses  were  sent  out,  and  all  re 
ceived  the  promise  of  support  by  the  "  Mission."  Much  good — 
how  much  none  may  say,  was  performed  by  these  women.  They 
suffered  and  labored,  and  sacrificed  much.  They  gave  their  best 
efforts  and  cares.  Many  of  them  were  poor  women,  unable  to 
give  their  time  and  labor  without  remuneration.  But,  alas  !  the 
purposes  and  promises  of  the  Masonic  Mission,  were  never 
fulfilled.  Many  of  the  women  received  no  remuneration,  and 
great  suffering  and  dissatisfaction  was  the  result.  The  good  to 
the  suffering  of  the  army  was  perhaps  the  same. 

Amidst  all  her  sorrows  and  disappointments,  Mrs.  Edson  con- 


MKS.  SARAH    P.  EDSON.  447 

tinned  her  labors  till  the  end  of  the  war.  Nothing  could  keep 
her  from  the  fulfilment  of  what  she  regarded  as  an  imperative 
duty,  and  nobly  she  achieved  her  purpose,  so  far  as  her  indi 
vidual  efforts  were  concerned. 

A  lady,  herself  ardently  engaged  in  the  work  of  relief,  and 
supply  for  the  soldiers,  visited  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  com 
pany  with  Mrs.  Edson,  in  the  winter  of  1865,  not  long  before  the 
close  of  the  war.  She  describes  the  reception  of  Mrs.  Edson, 
among  these  brave  men  to  whom  she  had  ministered  during  the 
terrific  campaign  of  the  preceding  summer,  as  a  complete  ovation. 
The  enthusiasm  was  overwhelming  to  the  quiet  woman  who  had 
come  among  them,  not  looking  nor  hoping  for  more  than  the  pri 
vilege  of  a  pleasant  greeting  from  those  endeared  to  her  by  the 
very  self-sacrificing  efforts  by  which  she  had  brought  them  relief, 
and  perhaps  been  the  means  of  saving  their  lives. 

Irrepressible  shouts,  cheers,  tears  and  thanks  saluted  her  on 
every  side,  and  she  passed  on  humbled  rather  than  elated  by  the 
excess  of  this  enthusiastic  gratitude. 


MISS    MARIA    M.    C.    HALL. 


LTHOUGH  the  Federal  City,  Washington,  was  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  more  intensely  Southern  in  senti 
ment  than  many  of  the  Southern  cities,  at  least  so  far 
as  its  native,  or  long  resident  inhabitants  could  make 
it  so,  yet  there  were  even  in  that  Sardis,  a  few  choice  spirits, 
reared  under  the  shadow  of  the  Capitol,  whose  patriotism  was  as 
lofty,  earnest  and  enduring  as  that  of  any  of  the  citizens  of  any 
Northern  or  Western  state. 

Among  these,  none  have  given  better  evidence  of  their  intense 
love  of  their  country  and  its  institutions,  than  Miss  Hall.  Born 
and  reared  in  the  Capital,  highly  educated,  and  of  pleasing 
manners  and  address,  she  was  well  fitted  to  grace  any  circle,  and 
to  shine  amid  the  gayeties  of  that  fashionable  and  frivolous  city. 
But  the  religion  of  the  compassionate  and  merciful  Jesus  had 
made  a  deep  lodgment  in  her  heart,  and  in  imitation  of  his  ex 
ample,  she  was  ready  to  forsake  the  halls  of  gayety  and  fashion, 
if  she  might  but  minister  to  the  sick,  the  suffering  and  the  sor 
rowing.  Surrounded  by  Secessionists,  her  father  too  far  advanced 
in  years  to  bear  arms  for  the  country  he  loved,  with  no  brother 
old  enough  to  be  enrolled  among  the  nation's  defenders,  her  pa 
triotism  was  as  fervid  as  that  of  any  soldier  of  the  Republic,  and 
she  resolved  to  consecrate  herself  to  the  service  of  the  nation,  by 
ministrations  to  the  sick  and  wounded.  Her  first  opportunity 
of  entering  upon  this  duty  was  by  the  reception  into  her  father's 
house  of  one  of  the  sick  soldiers  before  the  first  battle  of  Bull 

448 


MISS   MARIA   M.  C.  HALL.  449 

Run,  who  by  her  kindly  care  was  restored  to  health.  "When  the 
Indiana  Hospital  was  established  in  the  Patent  Office  building 
on  the  1st  of  August,  1861,  Miss  Hall  sought  a  position  there  as 
nurse;  but  Miss  Dix  had  already  issued  her  circular  announcing 
that  no  nurses  under  thirty-five  years  of  age  would  be  accepted ; 
and  in  vain  might  she  plead  her  willingness  and  ability  to 
undergo  hardships  and  the  uncomfortable  duties  pertaining  to  the 
nurse's  position.  She  therefore  applied  to  the  kind-hearted  but 
eccentric  Mrs.  Almira  Tales,  whose  hearty  and  positive  ways  had 
given  her  the  entre'e  of  the  Government  hospitals  from  the  first, 
but  she  too  discouraged  her  from  the  effort,  assuring  her,  in  her 
blunt  way,  that  there  was  no  poetry  in  this  sort  of  thing,  that 
the  men  were  very  dirty,  hungry  and  rough,  and  that  they  would 
not  appreciate  refinement  of  manner,  or  be  grateful  for  the  atten 
tion  bestowed  on  them  by  a  delicate  and  educated  lady.  Finding 
that  these  representations  failed  to  divert  Miss  Hall,  and  her 
sister  who  accompanied  her,  from  their  purpose,  Mrs.  Fales  threw 
open  the  door  of  one  of  the  wards,  saying  as  she  did  so,  "  Well, 
girls,  here  they  are,  with  everything  to  be  done  for  them.  You 
will  find  work  enough." 

There  was,  indeed,  w^ork  enough.  The  men  were  very  dirty, 
the  "sacred  soil"  of  Virginia  clinging  to  their  clothing  and  per 
sons  in  plenty.  Their  hair  was  matted  and  tangled,  and  often, 
not  free  from  vermin,  and  they  were  as  Mrs.  Fales  had  said,  a 
rough  set.  But  those  apparently  fragile  and  delicate  girls  had 
great  energy  and  resolution,  and  the  subject  of  our  sketch  was 
not  disposed  to  undertake  an  enterprise  and  then  abandon  it. 
She  had  trials  of  other  kinds,  to  bear.  The  surgeons  afforded 
her  few  or  no  facilities  for  her  work;  and  evidently  expected  that 
•her  whim  of  nursing  would  soon  be  given  over.  Then  came  the 
general  order  for  the  removal  of  volunteer  nurses  from  the  hos 
pitals  ;  this  she  evaded  by  enrolling  herself  as  nurse,  and  drawing 
army  pay,  which  she  distributed  to  the  men.  For  nearly  a  year 
she  remained  in  this  position,  without  command,  with  much  hard 

57 


450 

work  to  do,  and  no  recognition  of  it  from  any  official  source ;  but 
though  the  situation  was  not  in  any  respect  agreeable,  there  was 
a  consciousness  of  usefulness,  of  service  of  the  Master  in  it  to 
sustain  her;  and  while  under  her  gentle  ministrations  cleanliness 
took  the  place  of  filth,  order  of  disorder,  and  profanity  was  ban 
ished,  because  "  the  lady  did  not  like  it,"  it  was  also  her  privi 
lege  occasionally  to  lead  the  wanderer  from  God  back  to  the 
Saviour  he  had  deserted,  and  to  point  the  sinner  to  the  "  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  In  the  summer 
of  1862,  Miss  Hall  joined  the  Hospital  Transport  service,  first 
on  the  Daniel  Webster,  No.  2,  a  steamer  which  had  been  used  for 
the  transportation  of  troops  from  Washington.  After  the  sick 
and  wounded  of  this  transport  had  been  disposed  of,  Miss  Hall 
was  transferred  to  the  Daniel  Webster,  the  original  hospital  trans 
port  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  where  she  labored  faithfully 
for  some  weeks  after  the  change  of  base  to  Harrison's  Landing, 
when  she  was  associated  with  Mrs.  Almira  Fales  in  caring  for 
the  suffering  wounded  on  shore.  They  found  the  poor  fellows  in 
a  terrible  plight,  in  rotten  and  leaky  tents,  and  lying  on  the  damp 
soil,  sodden  with  the  heavy  rains,  and  poisonous  from  the  mala 
rial  exhalations,  in  need  of  clothing,  food,  medicine,  and  comfort; 
and  though  but  scantily  supplied  with  the  needful  stores,  these 
ladies  spared  no  labor  or  exertion  to  improve  their  condition,  and 
they  were  successful  to  a  greater  extent  than  would  have  seemed 
possible.  When  the  army  returned  to  Alexandria,  Miss  Hall 
visited  her  home  for  a  short  interval  of  rest ;  but  the  great  battle 
of  Antietam  called  her  again  to  her  chosen  work ;  she  went  to 
the  battle-field,  intending  to  join  Mrs.  Harris,  of  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  of  Philadelphia,  who  was  already  at  work  there,  and  had 
telegraphed  for  her;  but  being  unable  to  find  her  at  first,  she1 
entered  a  hospital  of  wounded  Rebel  prisoners,  and  ministered  to 
them  until  Mrs.  Harris  having  ascertained  her  situation,  sent  for 
her  to  come  to  Smoketown  General  Hospital,  where  at  that  time 
the  wounded  of  French's  Division  were  gathered,  and  which 


MISS    MARIA   M.  C.  HALL.  451 

ultimately  received  the  wounded  of  the  different  corps  who  were 
unable  to  endure  the  fatigue  of  transportation  to  Washington, 
Baltimore  or  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Vanderkieft,  an  accomplished 
physician  and  a  man  of  rare  tenderness,  amiability  and  goodness, 
was  at  this  time  the  surgeon  of  the  Smoketown  Hospital,  and 
appreciating  Miss  Hall's  skill  and  adaptation  to  her  work,  he  wel 
comed  her  cordially,  and  did  everything  in  his  power  to  render 
her  position  pleasant.  Mrs.  Harris  was  soon  called  to  other 
scenes,  and  after  Fredericksburg,  went  to  Falmouth  and  remained 
there  several  months,  but  Miss  Hall,  and  Mrs.  Husband  who  was 
now  associated  with  her  remained  at  Smoketown ;  and  when  Mrs. 
Husband  left,  Miss  Hall  still  continued  till  May,  1863,  when 
the  hospital  was  broken  up,  and  the  remaining  inmates  sent  to 
other  points.* 

*  The  following  letter  addressed  to  Miss  Hall,  by  one  of  the  wounded  sol 
diers  under  her  care  at  the  Smoketown  Hospital,  a  Frenchman  who,  while  a 
great  sufferer,  kept  the  whole  tent  full  of  wounded  men  cheerful  and  bright 
with  his  own  cheerfulness,  singing  the  Marseillaise  and  other  patriotic  songs,  is 
but  one  example  of  thousands,  of  the  regard  felt  for  her,  by  the  soldiers  whose 
sufferings  she  had  relieved  by  her  gentle  and  kindly  ministrations. 

'•'MANCHESTER,  MASS.  June  28th,  1866. 

"  Miss  M.  M.  C.  Hall : — There  are  kind  deeds  received  which  a  man  cannot 
ever  forget,  more  especially  when  they  are  done  by  one  who  does  not  expect 
any  rewards  for  them,  but  the  satisfaction  of  having  helped  humanity. 

"But  as  one  who  first  unfortunate,  and  next  fortunate  enough  to  come  under 
your  kind  cares,  I  come  rather  late  perhaps  to  pay  you  a  tribute  of  gratitude 
which  should  have  been  done  ere  this.  I  say  pay, — I  do  not  mean  that  with 
few  lines  in  a  broken  English,  I  expect  to  reward  you  for  your  good  care  of 
me  while  I  was  lying  at  Smoketown — no,  words  or  gold  could  not  repay  you 
for  your  sufferings,  privations,  the  painful  hard  sights  which  the  angels  of  the 
battle-field  are  willing  to  face, — no,  God  alone  can  reward  you.  Yet,  please 
accept,  Miss,  the  assurance  of  my  profound  respect,  and  my  everlasting  grati 
tude.  May  the  God  of  Justice,  Freedom  and  love,  ever  protect  you,  and  re 
ward  you  for  your  conduct  on  this  earth  is  the  wish  of 

"  Your  obedient  and  respectful  servant, 

"JULIUS  F.  EABARDY." 

The  Frenchman  who  sometimes  sang  the  Marseillaise — formerly  of  the  12th 
Massachusetts  Volunteers. 


452 

One  feature  of  this  Hospital-life  both  at  Smoketown,  and  the 
other  Hospitals  with  which  Miss  Hall  was  connected,  a  feature  to 
which  many  of  those  under  her  care  revert  with  great  pleasure, 
was  the  evening  or  family  prayers.  Those  of  the  convalescent 
soldiers  who  cared  to  do  so  were  accustomed  to  assemble  every 
evening  at  her  tent,  and  engage,  in  social  worship,  the  chaplain 
usually  being  present  and  taking  the  lead  of  the  meeting,  and  in 
the  event  of  his  absence,  one  of  the  soldiers  being  the  leader. 
This  evening  hour  was  looked  for  with  eagerness,  and  to  some, 
we  might  say,  to  many,  it  was  the  beginning  of  new  hopes  and  a 
new  life.  Many,  after  rejoining  their  regiments,  wrote  back  to 
their  friends,  "  We  think  of  you  all  at  the  sweet  hour  of  prayer, 
and  know  that  you  will  remember  us  when  you  gather  in  the  lit 
tle  tent."  The  life  in  the  Hospital,  was  by  this  and  other  means, 
rendered  the  vestibule  of  a  new  and  holy  life,  a  life  of  faith  and 
Christian  endeavor  to  many,  and  this  young  Christian  woman  was 
enabled  to  exercise  an  influence  for  good  which  shall  endure 
through  the  untold  ages  of  eternity. 

After  a  short  period  of  rest,  Miss  Hall  again  reported  for  duty 
at  the  Naval  Academy  Hospital,  Annapolis,  whither  considerable 
numbers  of  the  wounded  from  Gettysburg  were  brought,  and 
where  her  old  friend  Dr.  Vanderkieft  was  the  Surgeon-in-charge. 
After  a  time,  the  exchanged  prisoners  from  Belle  Isle  and  Libby 
Prison,  and  subsequently  those  from  Andersonville,  Florence, 
Salisbury  and  Wilmington,  began  to  come  into  this  Hospital,  and 
it  was  Miss  Hall's  painful  privilege  to  be  permitted  to  minister 
to  these  poor  victims  of  Kebel  cruelty  and  hate,  who  amid  the 
horrors  of  the  charnel  houses,  had  not  only  lost  their  health,  but 
almost  their  semblance  to  humanity,  and  reduced  by  starvation 
and  suffering  to  a  condition  of  fatuity,  often  could  not  remember 
their  own  names.  In  these  scenes  of  horror,  with  the  patience 
and  tenderness  born  only  of  Christianity,  she  ministered  to  these 
poor  helpless  men,  striving  to  bring  them  back  to  life,  and  health, 
and  reason,  comforting  them  in  their  sufferings,  pointing  the  dy- 


MISS   MAKIA   M.  C.  HALL.  453 

ing  to  a  suffering  Saviour,  and  corresponding  with  their  friends 
as  circumstances  required. 

It  was  at  Dr.  VanderkiefVs  request,  that  she  came  to  this  Hos 
pital,  and  at  first  she  was  placed  in  charge  of  Section  Five,  con 
sisting  of  the  Hospital  tents  outside  of  the  main  building.  Mrs. 
Adaline  Tyler,  (Sister  Tyler),  was  at  this  time  lady  Superintend 
ent  of  the  entire  Hospital,  and  administered  her  duties  with  great 
skill  and  ability.  When,  in  the  spring  of  1864,  as  we  have  else 
where  recorded,  the  impaired  health  of  Mrs.  Tyler  rendered  her 
further  stay  in  the  Hospital  impossible.  Miss  Hall,  though 
young,  was  deemed  by  Dr.  Vanderkieft,  most  eminently  qualified 
to  succeed  her  in  the  general  superintendency  of  this  great  Hos 
pital,  and  she  remained  in  charge  of  it  till  it  was  closed  in  the 
summer  of  1865.  Here  she  had  at  times,  more  than  four  thou 
sand  of  these  poor  sufferers  under  her  care,  and  although  she  had 
from  ten  to  twenty  assistants,  each  in  charge  of  a  section,  yet  her 
own  labors  were  extremely  arduous,  and  her  care  and  responsi 
bility  such  as  few  could  have  sustained.  The  danger,  as  well  as 
the  care,  was  very  much  increased  by  the  prevalence  of  typhus- 
fever,  in  a  very  malignant  form  in  the  Hospital,  brought  there 
by  some  of  the  poor  victims  of  rebel  barbarity  from  Anderson- 
ville.  Three  of  her  most  valued  assistants  contracted  this  fearful 
disease  from  the  patients  whom  they  had  so  carefully  watched 
over  and  died,  martyrs  to  their  philanthropy  and  patriotism. 

During  her  residence  at  this  Hospital,  Miss  Hall  often  con 
tributed  to  "  THE  CRUTCH,"  a  soldier's  weekly  paper,  edited  by 
Miss  Titcomb,  one  of  the  assistant  superintendents,  to  which  tre 
other  ladies,  the  officers  and  some  of  the  patients  were  also  con 
tributors.  This  paper  created  much  interest  in  the  hospital. 

Our  record  of  the  work  of  this  active  and  devoted  Chris 
tian  woman  is  but  brief,  for  though  there  were  almost  num 
berless  instances  of  suffering,  of  heroism  and  triumph  pass 
ing  constantly  under  her  eye,  yet  the  work  of  one  day  was  so 
much  like  that  of  every  other,  that  it  afforded  little  of  incident 


454 

in  her  own  labors  to  require  a  longer  narrative.  Painful  as  many 
of  her  experiences  were,  yet  she  found  as  did  many  others  who 
engaged  in  it  that  it  was  a  blessed  and  delightful  work,  and  in 
the  retrospect,  more  than  a  year  after  its  close,  she  uttered  these 
words  in  regard  to  it,  words  to  which  the  hearts  of  many  other 
patriotic  women  will  respond,  "  I  mark  my  Hospital  days  as  my 
happiest  ones,  and  thank  God  for  the  way  in  which  He  led  me 
into  the  good  work,  and  for  the  strength  which  kept  me  through 
it  all." 


THE   HOSPITAL    CORPS  AT  THE  NAVAL  ACADEMY 
HOSPITAL,  ANNAPOLIS. 


HOUGH  the  Naval  Academy  buildings  at  Annapolis 
had  been  used  for  hospital  purposes,  from  almost  the 
first  months  of  the  war,  they  did  not  acquire  celebrity, 
or  accommodate  a  very  large  number  of  patients  until 
August,  1863,  when  Surgeon  Yanderkieft  took  charge  of  it,  and  it 
received  great  numbers  of  the  wounded  men  from  Gettysburg. 
As  the  number  of  these  was  reduced  by  deaths,  convalescence  and 
discharge  from  the  army,  their  places  were  more  than  supplied  by 
the  returning  prisoners,  paroled  or  discharged,  from  Libby,  Belle 
Isle,  Andersonville,  Millen,  Salisbury,  Florence  and  Wilmington. 
These  poor  fellows  under  the  horrible  cruelties,  systematically 
practiced  by  the  rebel  authorities,  with  the  avowed  intention  of 
weakening  the  Union  forces,  had  been  starved,  frozen,  maimed 
and  tortured  until  they  had  almost  lost  the  semblance  of  human 
ity,  and  one  of  the  noble  women  who  cared  for  them  so  tenderly, 
states  that  she  often  found  herself  involuntarily  placing  her  hand 
upon  her  cheek  to  ascertain  whether  their  flesh  was  like  hers, 
human  and  vitalized.  The  sunken  hollow  cheeks,  the  parchment 
skin  drawn  so  tightly  over  the  bones,  the  great,  cavernous,  lack 
luster  eyes,  the  half  idiotic  stare,  the  dreamy  condition,  the  loss 
of  memory  even  of  their  own  names,  and  the  wonder  with  which 
they  regarded  the  most  ordinary  events,  so  strange  to  them  after 
their  long  and  fearful  experience,  all  made  them  seem  more  like 
beings  from  some  other  world,  than  inhabitants  of  this.  Many 

455 


456 

of  them  never  recovered  fully  their  memory  or  reason ;  the  iron 
had  entered  the  soul.  Others  lingered  long  on  the  confines  of  two 
worlds,  now  rallying  a  little  and  then  falling  back,  till  finally  the 
flickering  life  went  out  suddenly;  a  few  of  the  hardiest  and 
toughest  survived,  and  recovered  partial  though  seldom  or  never 
complete  health.  During  a  part  of  the  first  year  of  Dr.  Van- 
derkiefVs  administration,  Mrs.  Adaline  Tyler  ("Sister  Tyler") 
Avas  Lady  Superintendent  of  the  hospital,  and  the  sketch  else 
where  given  of  her  life  shows  how  earnestly  and  ably  she 
labored  to  promote  the  interest  of  its  inmates.  During  most  of 
this  time  Miss  Maria  M.  C.  Hall  had  charge  of  section  five,  con 
sisting  of  the  hospital  tents  which  occupied  a  part  of  the  academ 
ical  campus.  Miss  Helen  M.  Noye,  a  young  lady  from  Buffalo, 
a  very  faithful,  enthusiastic  and  cheerful  worker,  was  her  assis 
tant,  and  remained  for  nearly  a  year  in  the  hospitel. 

When  in  the  spring  of  1864,  Miss  Hall  was  appointed  Mrs. 
Tyler's  successor  as  Lady  Superintendent  of  the  hospital,  its 
numerous  large  wards  required  several  assistant  superintendents 
who  should  direct  the  preparation  of  the  special  diet,  and  the  other 
delicacies  so  desirable  for  the  sick,  attend  to  the  condition  of  the 
men,  ascertain  their  circumstances  and  history,  correspond  with 
their  friends,  and  endeavor  so  far  as  possible  to  cheer,  comfort  and 
encourage  their  patients. 

When  the  number  of  patients  was  largest  twenty  of  these 
assistants  were  required,  and  the  illness  of  some,  or  their  change 
to  other  fields,  rendered  the  list  a  varying  one,  over  thirty  different 
ladies  being  connected  with  the  hospital  during  the  two  years  from 
July,  1863,  to  July,  1865. 

A  considerable  number  of  these  ladies  had  accompanied  Mrs. 
Tyler  to  Annapolis,  having  previously  been  her  assistants  in  the 
general  hospital  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania.  Among  these  were 
nine  from  Maine,  viz.,  Miss  Louise  Titcomb,  Miss  Susan  Newhall, 
Miss  Rebecca  R.  Usher,  Miss  Almira  Quimby,  Miss  Emily  W. 
Dana,  Miss  Adeline  Walker,  Miss  Mary  E.  Dupee,  Miss  Mary 


HOSPITAL   COEPS   AT   THE   NAVAL   ACADEMY,  ANNAPOLIS.    457 

Pierson,  and  Mrs.  Eunice  D.  Merrill,  all  women  of  excellent  abil 
ities  and  culture,  and  admirably  adapted  to  their  work.  One  of 
this  band  of  sisters,  Miss  Adeline  Walker,  died  on  the  28th  of 
April,  1865,  of  malignant  typhus,  contracted  in  the  discharge  of 
her  duties  in  the  hospital. 

Of  her  Miss  Hall  wrote  in  the  Crutch,  "She  slept  at  sunset, 
sinking  into  the  stillness  of  death  as  peacefully  as  a  melted  day 
into  the  darkness  of  the  night.  For  two  years  and  a  half — longer 
than  almost  any  other  here — she  had  pursued  her  labors  in  this  hos 
pital,  and  with  her  ready  sympathy  with  the  suffering  or  wronged, 
had  ministered  to  many  needy  ones  the  balm  of  comfort  and 
healing.  Her  quick  wit  and  keen  repartee  has  served  to  brighten 
up  many  an  hour  otherwise  dull  and  unhomelike  in  our  little 
circle  of  workers,  gathered  in  our  quarters  off  duty. 

"So  long  an  inmate  of  this  hospital  its  every  part  was  familiar 
to  her;  its  trees  and  flowers  she  loved;  in  all  its  beauties  she 
rejoiced.  We  could  almost  fancy  a  hush  in  nature's  music,  as  we 
walked  behind  her  coffin,  under  the  beautiful  trees  in  the  bright 
May  sunshine. 

"  It  was  a  touching  thing  to  see  the  soldier-boys  carrying  the 
coffin  of  her  who  had  been  to  them  in  hours  of  pain  a  minister 
of  good  and  comfort.  Her  loss  is  keenly  felt  among  them,  and 
tears  are  on  the  face  of  more  than  one  strong  man  as  he  speaks 
of  her.  One  more  veteran  soldier  has  fallen  in  the  ranks,  one 
more  faithful  patriot-heart  is  stilled.  ISTo  less  to  her  than  to  the 
soldier  in  the  field  shall  be  awarded  the  heroic  honor. 

'For  God  metes  to  each  his  measure; 

And  the  woman's  patient  prayer, 
No  less  than  ball  or  bayonet 
Brings  the  victory  unaware.' 

Patient  prayer  and  work  for  the  victory  to  our  country  was  the 
life  of  our  sister  gone  from  us ;  and  in  the  dawning  of  our  brighter 
days,  and  the  coming  glory  of  our  regenerated  country,  it  is  hard 
to  lay  her  away  in  unconsciousness;  hard  to  close  her  eyes  against 

58 


458 

the  bright  sunshine  of  God's  smile  upon  a  ransomed  people ;  hard 
to  send  her  lifeless  form  away  from  us,  alone  to  the  grave  in  her 
far  off  home;  hard  to  realize  that  one  so  familiar  in  our  little 
band  shall  go  no  more  in  and  out  among  us.  But  we  say  fare 
well  to  her  not  without  hope.  Her  earnest  spirit,  ever  eager  in 
its  questioning  of  what  is  truth,  was  not  at  rest  with  simply 
earthly  things.  Her  reason  was  unsatisfied,  and  she  longed  for 
more  than  was  revealed  to  her  of  the  Divine.  To  the  land  of 
full  realities  she  is  gone.  We  trust  that  in  his  light  she  shall  see 
light;  that  waking  in  his  likeness,  she  shall  be  satisfied,  and  ever 
more  at  rest.  We  cannot  mourn  that  she  fell  at  her  post.  Her 
warfare  is  accomplished,  and  the  oft-expressed  thought  of  her 
heart  is  in  her  death  fulfilled.  She  has  said,  'It  is  noble  to  die 
at  one's  post,  with  the  armor  on ;  to  fall  where  the  work  has  been 
done/" 

One  of  her  associates  from  her  own  State  thus  speaks  of  her: 
"  Miss  Walker  left  many  friends  and  a  comfortable  home  in  Port 
land,  in  the  second  year  of  the  war.  Her  devotion  and  interest 
in  the  work  so  congenial  to  her  feelings,  increased  with  every 
year's  experience,  until  she  found  herself  bound  to  it  heart  and 
hand.  Her  large  comprehension,  too,  of  all  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  soldier's  experience  in  and  outside  of  hospital, 
quickened  her  sympathies  and  adapted  her  to  the  part  she  was  to 
share,  as  counsellor  and  friend.  Many  a  soldier  lives,  who  can 
pay  her  a  worthy  tribute  of  gratitude  for  her  care  and  sympathy 
in  his  hour  of  need ;  and  in  the  beyond,  of  the  thousands  who 
died  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  there  are  many  who  may  call  her 
<  blessed."' 

Massachusetts  was  also  largely  represented  among  the  faithful 
workers  of  the  Naval  Academy  Hospital,  at  Annapolis.  Among 
these  Miss  Abbie  J.  Howe,  of  Brookfield;  Miss  Kate  P.  Thomp 
son,  of  Worcester,  whose  excessive  labors  and  the  serious  illness 
which  followed,  have  probably  rendered  her  an  invalid  for  life; 
Miss  Eudora  Clark,  of  Boston,  Miss  Ruth  L.  Ellis,  of  Bridge- 


HOSPITAL   COEPS   AT   THE   NAVAL   ACADEMY,  ANNAPOLIS.    459 

water,  Miss  Sarah  Allen,  of  Wilbraham,  Miss  Agnes  Gillis,  of 
Lowell,  and  Miss  Maria  Josslyn,  of  Roxbury,  were  those  who 
were  most  laborious  and  faithful.  From  New  Jersey  there  came 
a  faithful  and  zealous  worker,  Miss  Charlotte  Ford,  of  Morris- 
town.  From  New  York  there  were  Miss  Helen  M.  Noye,  of 
Buffalo,  already  named,  Mrs.  Guest,  also  of  Buffalo,  Miss  Emily 
Gove,  of  Peru,  Miss  Mary  Gary,  of  Albany,  Miss  Ella  Wolcott, 
of  Elmira,  and  Miss  M.  A.  B.  Young,  of  Morristown,  New  York. 
This  lady,  one  of  the  most  devoted  and  faithful  of  the  hospital 
nurses,  was  also  a  martyr  to  her  fidelity  and  patriotism,  dying  of 
typhus  fever  contracted  in  her  attendance  upon  her  patients,  on 
the  12th  of  January,  1865. 

Miss  Young  left  a  pleasant  home  in  St.  Lawrence  County, 
New  York,  soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  war,  with  her 
brother,  Captain  James  Young,  of  the  Sixtieth  New  York  Vol 
unteers,  and  was  an  active  minister  of  good  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  of  that  regiment.  She  took  great  pride  in  the  regiment, 
wearing  its  badge  and  having  full  faith  in  its  valor.  When  the 
Sixtieth  went  into  active  service,  she  entered  a  hospital  at  Balti 
more,  but  her  regiment  was  never  forgotten.  She  heard  from  it 
almost  daily  through  her  soldier-brother,  between  whom  and 
herself  existed  the  most  tender  devotion  and  earnest  sympathy. 
From  Baltimore  she  was  transferred  to  Annapolis  early  in  Mrs. 
Tyler's  administration.  In  1864,  she  suffered  from  the  small 
pox,  and  ever  after  her  recovery  she  cared  for  all  who  were  affected 
with  that  disease  in  the  hospital. 

Her  thorough  identity  with  the  soldier's  life  and  entire  sacrifice 
to  the  cause,  was  perhaps  most  fully  and  touchingly  evidenced  by 
her  oft  repeated  expression  of  a  desire  to  be  buried  among  the 
soldiers.  When  in  usual  health,  visiting  the  graves  of  those  to 
whom  she  had  ministered  in  the  hospital,  she  said,  "If  I  die  in 
hospital,  let  me  buried  here  among  my  boys."  This  request  was 
sacredly  regarded,  and  she  was  borne  to  her  last  resting-place  by 
soldiers  to  whom  she  had  ministered  in  her  own  days  of  health. 


460 

Another  of  the  martyrs  in  this  service  of  philanthropy,  was 
Miss  Rose  M.  Billing,  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  a 
young  lady  of  most  winning  manners,  and  spoken  of  by  Miss 
Hall  as  one  of  the  most  devoted  and  conscientious  workers,  she 
ever  knew — an  earnest  Christian,  caring  always  for  the  spiritual 
as  well  as  the  physical  wants  of  her  men.  She  was  of  delicate, 
fragile  .constitution,  and  a  deeply  sympathizing  nature.  From 
the  commencement  of  the  war,  she  had  been  earnestly  desirous  of 
participating  in  the  personal  labors  of  the  hospital,  and  finally 
persuaded  her  mother,  (who,  knowing  her  frail  health,  was  reluc 
tant  to  have  her  enter  upon  such  duties),  to  give  her  consent. 
She  commenced  her  first  service  with  Miss  Hall,  in  the  Indiana 
Hospital,  in  the  Patent  Office  building,  in  the  autumn  of  1861, 
and  subsequently  served  in  the  Falls  Church  Hospital,  and  at 
Fredericksburg.  Early  in  1863  she  came  to  Annapolis,  and  no 
one  of  the  nurses  was  more  faithful  and  devoted  in  labors  for  the 
soldiers.  Twice  she  had  been  obliged  to  leave  her  chosen  work 
for  a  short  time  in  consequence  of  illness,  but  she  had  hastened 
back  to  it  with  the  utmost  alacrity,  as  soon  as  she  could  again 
undertake  her  work.  She  had  been  eminently  successful,  in 
bringing  up  some  cases  of  the  fever,  deemed  by  the  surgeons, 
hopeless,  and  though  she  herself  felt  that  she  was  exceeding  her 
strength,  or  as  she  expressed  it,  "  wearing  out/7  she  could  not  and 
would  not  leave  her  soldier  boys  while  they  were  so  ill;  and 
when  the  disease  fastened  upon  her,  she  had  not  sufficient  vital 
energy  left  to  throw  it  off.  She  failed  rapidly  and  died  011  the 
14th  of  January,  1865,  after  two  weeks7  illness.  Her  mother, 
after  her  death,  received  numerous  letters  from  soldiers  for  wrhom 
she  had  cared,  lamenting  her  loss  and  declaring  that  but  for  her 
faithful  attentions,  they  -should  not  have  been  in  the  land  of  the 
living.  Among  those  who  have  given  their  life  to  the  cause  of 
their  country  in  the  hospitals,  no  purer  or  saintlier  soul  has  ex 
changed  the  sorrows,  the  troubles  and  the  pains  of  earth  for  the 
bliss  of  heaven,  than  Rose  M.  Billing. 


OTHER  LABORS  OF  SOME  OF  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE 
ANNAPOLIS  HOSPITAL  CORPS. 


OME  of  the  ladies  named  in  the  preceding  sketch  had 
passed  through  other  experiences  of  hospital  life,  before 
becoming  connected  with  the  Naval  Academy  Hospital 
at  Annapolis.  Among  these,  remarkable  for  their  fi 
delity  to  the  cause  they  had  undertaken  to  serve,  were  several  of 
the  ladies  from  Maine,  the  Maine-stay  of  the  Annapolis  Hospital, 
as  Dr.  Yanderkieft  playfully  called  them.  We  propose  to  devote 
a  little  space  to  sketches  of  some  of  these  faithful  workers. 

Miss  Louise  Titcomb,  was  from  Portland,  Maine,  a  young 
lady  of  high  culture  and  refinement,  and  from  the  beginning  of 
the  War,  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in  working  for  the  soldiers, 
in  connection  with  the  other  patriotic  ladies  of  that  city.  When 
in  the  early  autumn  of  1862,  Mrs.  Adaline  Tyler,  as  we  have  al 
ready  said  in  our  sketch  of  her,  took  charge  as  Lady  Superin 
tendent  of  the  Hospital  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  which  had 
previously  been  in  the  care  of  a  Committee  of  ladies  of  the  vil 
lage,  she  sought  for  volunteer  assistants  in  her  work,  who  would 
give  themselves  wholly  to  it. 

Miss  Titcomb,  Miss  Susan  Newhall,  and  Miss  Eebecca  E. 
Usher,  all  from  Portland,  were  among  the  first  to  enter  upon  this 
work.  They  remained  there  eight  months,  until  the  remaining 
patients  had  become  convalescent,  and  the  war  had  made  such 
progress  Southward  that  the  post  was  too  far  from  the  field  to  be 
maintained  as  a  general  hospital. 

461 


462  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

The  duties  of  these  ladies  at  Chester,  were  the  dispensing  of 
the  extra  and  low  diet  to  the  patients ;  the  charge  of  their  cloth 
ing  ;  watching  with,  and  attending  personally  to  the  wants  of 
those  patients  whose  condition  was  most  critical ;  writing  for  and 
reading  to  such  of  the  sick  or  wounded  as  needed  or  desired  these 
services,  and  attending  to  innumerable  details  for  their  cheer  and 
comfort.  Dr.  Le  Comte,  the  Surgeon-in-charge,  and  the  assist 
ant  Surgeons  of  the  wards,  were  very  kind,  considerate  and  cour 
teous  to  these  ladies,  and  showed  by  their  conduct  how  highly 
they  appreciated  their  services. 

In  August,  1863,  when  Mrs.  Tyler  was  transferred  to  the  Naval 
Academy  Hospital,  at  Annapolis,  these  ladies  went  thither  with 
her,  where  they  were  joined  soon  after  by  Miss  Adeline  Walker, 
Miss  Almira  F.  Quimby,  and  Miss  Mary  Pierson,  all  of 
Portland,  and  Miss  Mary  E.  Dupee,  Miss  Emily  "W.  Dana,  and 
Mrs.  Eunice  D.  Merrill,  all  from  Maine.  Their  duties  here  were 
more  varied  and  fatiguing  than  at  Chester.  One  of  them  de 
scribes  them  thus :  "  The  Hospital  was  often  crowded  with  pa 
tients  enduring  the  worst  forms  of  disease  and  suffering;  and 
added  to  our  former  duties  were  new  and  untried  ones  incident 
to  the  terrible  and  helpless  condition  of  these  returned  prisoners. 
Evening  Schools  were  instituted  for  the  benefit  of  the  convales 
cents,  in  which  we  shared  as  teachers ;  at  the  Weekly  Lyceum, 
through  the  winter,  the  ladies  in  turn  edited  and  read  a  paper, 
containing  interesting  contributions  from  inmates  of  the  Hospital ; 
they  devised  and  took  part  in  various  entertainments  for  the 
benefit  of  the  convalescents ;  held  singing  and  prayer-meetings 
frequently  in  the  wards ;  watched  over  the  dying,  were  present 
at  all  the  funerals,  and  aided  largely  in  forwarding  the  effects,  and 
Avhere  it  was  possible  the  bodies  of  the  deceased  to  their  friends. 
Five  of  these  faithful  nurses  were  attacked  by  the  typhus  fever, 
contracted  by  their  attention  to  the  patients,  exhausted  as  they 
were  by  overwork,  from  the  great  number  of  the  very  sick  and 
helpless  men  brought  to  the  hospital  in  the  winter  of  1864-5; 


OTHER   LABORS    OF   THE   ANNAPOLIS    HOSPITAL    CORPS.      463 

and  the  illness  of  these  threw  a  double  duty  upon  those  who  were 
fortunate  enough  to  escape  the  epidemic.  To  the  honor  of  these 
ladies,  it  should  be  said  that  not  one  of  them  shrank  from  doing 
her  full  proportion  of  the  work,  and  nearly  all  who  survived,  re 
mained  to  the  close  of  the  war.  For  twenty  months,  Miss  Tit- 
comb  was  absent  from  duty  but  two  days,  and  others  had  a  record 
nearly  as  satisfactory.  Nearly  all  would  have  done  so  but  for 
illness. 

Miss  Rebecca  Usher,  of  whom  we  have  spoken  as  one  of 
Miss  Titcomb's  associates,  in  the  winter  of  1864-5,  accepted  the 
invitation  of  the  Maine  Camp  and  Hospital  Association,  to  go  to 
City  Point,  and  minister  to  the  sick  and  wounded,  especially  of 
the  Maine  regiments  there.  She  was  accompanied  by  Miss  Mary 
A.  Dupee,  wrho  was  one  of  the  assistants  at  Annapolis,  from  Maine. 

The  Maine  Camp  and  Hospital  Association,  was  an  organiza 
tion  founded  by  benevolent  ladies  of  Portland,  and  subsequently 
having  its  auxiliaries  in  all  parts  of  the  state,  having  for  its 
object  the  supplying  of  needful  aid  and  comfort,  and  personal 
attention,  primarily  to  the  soldiers  of  Maine,  and  secondarily  to 
those  from  other  states.  Mrs.  James  E.  Fernald,  Mrs.  J.  S. 
Eaton,  Mrs.  Elbridge  Bacon,  Mrs.  William  Preble,  Miss  Harriet 
Fox,  and  others  were  the  managers  of  the  association.  Of  these 
Mrs.  J.  S.  Eaton,  the  widow  of  a  Baptist  clergyman,  formerly  a 
pastor  in  Portland,  went  very  early  to  the  front,  with  Mrs.  Isa 
bella  Fogg,  the  active  agent  of  the  association,  of  whom  we  have 
more  to  say  elsewhere,  and  the  two  labored  most  earnestly  for  the 
welfare  of  the  soldiers.  Mrs.  Fogg  finally  went  to  the  Western 
armies,  and  Mrs.  Eaton  invited  Miss  Usher  and  Miss  Dupee, 
with  some  of  the  other  Maine  ladies  to  join  her  at  City  Point,  in 
the  winter  of  1864-5.  Mrs.  Ruth  S.  Mayhew  had  been  a  faith 
ful  assistant  at  City  Point  from  the  first,  and  after  Mrs.  Fogg 
went  to  the  West,  had  acted  as  agent  of  the  association  there. 
Miss  Usher  joined  Mrs.  Eaton  and  Mrs.  Mayhew,  in  December, 
1864,  but  Miss  Dupee  did  not  leave  Annapolis  till  April,  1865. 


464 

The  work  at  City  Point  was  essentially  different  from  that  at 
Annapolis,  and  less  saddening  in  its  character.  The  sick  soldiers 
from  Maine  were  visited  in  the  hospital  and  supplied  with  deli 
cacies,  and  those  who  though  in  health  were  in  need  of  extra 
clothing,  etc.,  were  supplied  as  they  presented  themselves.  The 
Maine  Camp  and  Hospital  Association  were  always  ready  to 
respond  to  a  call  for  supplies  from  their  agents,  and  there  was 
never  any  lack  for  any  length  of  time.  In  May,  1865,  Mrs. 
Eaton  and  her  assistants  established  an  agency  at  Alexandria, 
and  they  carried  their  supplies  to  the  regiments  encamped  around 
that  city,  and  visited  the  comparatively  few  sick  remaining  in 
the  hospitals.  The  last  of  June  their  work  seemed  to  be  com 
pleted  and  they  returned  home. 

Miss  Mary  A.  Dupee  was  devoted  to  the  cause  from  the  begin 
ning  of  the  war.  She  offered  her  services  when  the  first  regiment 
left  Portland,  and  though  they  were  not  then  needed,  she  held 
herself  in  constant  readiness  to  go  where  they  were,  working 
meantime  for  the  soldiers  as  opportunity  presented.  When  Mrs. 
Tyler  was  transferred  to  Annapolis,  she  desired  Miss  Susan  New- 
hall,  a  most  faithful  and  indefatigable  worker  for  the  soldiers, 
who  had  been  with  her  at  Chester,  to  bring  with  her  another  who 
was  like-minded.  The  invitation  was  given  to  Miss  Dupee,  who 
gladly  accepted  it.  At  Annapolis  she  had  charge  of  thirteen 
wards  and  had  a  serving-room,  where  the  food  was  sent  ready 
cooked,  for  her  to  distribute  according  to  the  directions  of  the 
surgeons  to  "  her  boys."  Before  breakfast  she  went  out  to  see 
that  that  meal  was  properly  served,  and  to  ascertain  the  condition 
of  the  sickest  patients.  Then  forenoon  and  afternoon,  she  visited 
each  one  in  turn,  ministering  to  their  comfort  as  far  as  possible.  The 
work,  though  wearing,  and  at  times  accompanied  with  some  dan 
ger  of  contagion,  she  found  pleasant,  notwithstanding  its  connec 
tion  with  so  many  sad  scenes.  The  consciousness  of  doing  good 
more  than  compensated  for  any  toil  or  sacrifice,  and  in  the  re 
view  of  her  work,  Miss  Dupee  expresses  the  belief  that  she  derived 


OTHER   LABORS   OF    THE    ANNAPOLIS    HOSPITAL   CORPS.      465 

as  much  benefit  from  this  philanthropic  toil  as  she  bestowed.  As 
we  have  already  said,  she  was  for  three  months  at  City  Point  and 
elsewhere  ministering  to  the  soldiers  of  her  native  State. 

Miss  Abbie  J.  Howe,  of  Brookfield,  Massachusetts,  was  an 
other  of  the  Annapolis  Hospital  Corps  deserving  of  especial 
mention  for  her  untiring  devotion  to  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  sick  and  wounded  who  were  under  her  charge. 
We  regret  our  inability  to  obtain  so  full  an  account  of  her  work 
and  its  incidents  as  we  desired,  but  we  cannot  suffer  her  to  pass 
unnoticed.  Miss  Howe  had  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  been 
earnestly  desirous  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  personal  service  to 
the  soldiers  in  the  hospitals,  but  considerations  of  duty,  the  oppo 
sition  of  her  friends,  etc.,  had  detained  her  at  home  until  the 
way  was  unexpectedly  opened  for  her  in  September,  1863.  She 
came  directly  to  Annapolis,  and  during  her  whole  stay  there  had 
charge  of  the  same  wards  which  she  first  entered,  although  a 
change  was  made  in  the  class  of  patients  under  her  care  in  the 
spring  of  1864.  At  first  these  wards  were  filled  with  private 
soldiers,  but  in  April,  1864,  they  were  occupied  by  the  wounded 
and  sick  officers  of  the  Officers'  Hospital  at  that  time  established 
in  the  Kaval  Academy  under  charge  of  Surgeon  Yanderkieft. 

Miss  Howe  brought  to  her  work  not  only  extraordinary  skill 
and  tact  in  the  performance  of  her  duties,  but  a  deep  personal 
interest  in  her  patients,  a  care  and  thoughtful  ness  for  what  might 
be  best  adapted  to  each  individual  case,  as  if  each  had  been  her 
own  brother,  and  beyond  this,  an  intense  desire  to  promote  their 
spiritual  good.  An  earnest  and  devoted  Christian,  whose  highest 
motive  of  action  was  the  desire  to  do  something  for  the  honor 
and  glory  of  the  Master  she  loved,  she  entered  upon  her  duties 
in  such  a  spirit  as  we  may  imagine  actuated  the  saints  and  mar 
tyrs  of  the  early  Christian  centuries. 

We  cannot  forbear  introducing  here  a  brief  description  of  her 
work  from  one  who  knew  her  well : — "She  came  to  Annapolis 
with  a  spirit  ready  and  eager  to  do  all  things  and  suffer  all  things 

59 


466  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

for  the  privilege  of  being  allowed  to  work  for  the  good  of  the 
soldiers.  Nothing  was  too  trivial  for  her  to  be  engaged  in  for 
their  sakes, — nothing  was  too  great  to  undertake  for  the  least 
advantage  to  one  of  her  smallest  and  humblest  patients.  This 
was  true  of  her  regard  to  their  bodily  comfort  and  health — but 
still  more  true  of  her  concern  for  their  spiritual  good.  I  remem 
ber  very  well  that  when  she  had  been  at  work  only  a  day  or  two 
she  spoke  to  me  with  real  joy  of  one  of  her  sick  patients,  telling 
me  of  a  hope  she  had  that  he  was  a  Christian  and  prepared  for 
death.  *  *  *  She  loved  the  soldiers  for  the  cause  for  which 
they  suffered — but  she  loved  them  most,  because  she  was  actuated 
in  all  things  by  her  love  for  her  Saviour,  and  for  them  He  had 
died.  *  *  *  I  used  to  feel  that  her  presence  and  influence, 
even  if  she  had  not  been  strong  enough  to  work  at  all,  would 
have  been  invaluable — the  soldiers  so  instinctively  recognized  her 
true  interest  in  them, — her  regard  for  the  right  and  her  abhorrence 
of  anything'  like  deceit  or  untruthfulness,  that  they  could  not  help 
trying  to  be  good  for  her  sake." 

Miss  Howe  took  a  special  interest  in  the  soldier-nurses — the 
men  detailed  for  extra  duty  in  the  wards.  She  had  a  very  high 
opinion  of  their  tenderness  and  faithfulness  in  their  most  trying 
and  wearying  work,  and  of  their  devotion  to  their  suffering  com 
rades.  This  estimate  was  undoubtedly  true  of  most  of  those  in 
her  wards,  and  perhaps  of  a  majority  of  those  in  the  Naval  Acad 
emy  Hospital ;  but  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  them  to  have 
been  other  than  faithful  and  tender  under  the  influence  of  her 
example  and  the  loyalty  they  could  not  help  feeling  to  a  woman 
"  so  nobly  good  and  true."  Like  all  the  others  engaged  in  these 
labors  among  the  returned  prisoners,  Miss  Howe  speaks  of  her 
work  as  one  which  brought  its  own  abundant  reward,  in  the  in 
expressible  joy  she  experienced  in  being  able  to  do  something  to 
relieve  and  comfort  those  poor  suffering  ones,  wounded,  bleeding, 
and  tortured  for  their  country's  sake,  and  at  times  to  have  the 
privilege  of  telling  the  story  of  the  cross  to  eager  dying  men,  who 
listened  in  their  agony  longing  to  'know  a  Saviour's  love. 


MRS.  A.  H.  AND  MISS   S.  H.  GIBBONS. 


US.  GIBBONS  is  very  well  known  in  the  City  of  New 
York  where  she  resides,  as  an  active  philanthropist, 
devoting  a  large  portion  of  her  time  and  strength  to 
the  various  charitable  and  reformatory  enterprises  in 
which  she  is  engaged.  This  tendency  to  labors  undertaken  for 
the  good  of  others,  is,  in  part,  a  portion  of  her  inheritance.  The 
daughter  of  that  good  man,  some  years  ago  deceased,  whose 
memory  is  so  heartily  cherished,  by  all  to  whom  the  record  of  a 
thousand  brave  and  kindly  deeds  is  known,  so  warmly  by  a  mul 
titude  of  friends,  and  by  the  oppressed  and  suffering — Isaac  T. 
Hopper — we  are  justified  in  saying  that  his  mantle  has  fallen  upon 
this  his  favorite  child. 

The  daughter  of  the  noble  and  steadfast  old  Friend,  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  known  as  a  friend  of  the  slave.  Like  her  father 
she  was  ready  to  labor,  and  sacrifice  and  suffer  in  his  cause,  and 
had  already  made  this  apparent,  had  borne  persecution,  the 
crucial  test  of  principle,  before  the  war  which  gave  to  the  world 
the  prominent  idea  of  freedom  for  all,  and  thus  wiped  the  darkest 
stain  from  our  starry  banner,  was  inaugurated. 

The  record  of  the  army  work  of  Mrs.  Gibbons,  does  not  com 
mence  until  the  autumn  of  1861.  Previous  to  that  time,  her 
labors  for  the  soldier  had  been  performed  at  home,  where  there 
was  much  to  be  done  in  organizing  a  class  of  effort  hitherto  un 
known  to  the  women  of  our  country.  But  she  had  always  felt  a 
strong  desire  to  aid  the  soldiers  by  personal  sacrifices. 

467 


468  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

It  was  quite  possible  for  her  to  leave  home,  which  so  many 
mothers  of  families,  whatever  their  wishes,  were  unable  to  do. 
Accordingly,  accompanied  by  her  eldest  daughter,  Miss  Sarah  H. 
Gibbons,  now  Mrs.  Emerson,  she  proceeded  to  Washington,  about 
the  time  indicated. 

There,  for  some  weeks,  mother  and  daughter  regularly  visited 
the  hospitals,  of  which  there  were  already  many  in  the  Capitol 
City,  ministering  to  the  inmates,  and  distributing  the  stores  with 
which  they  were  liberally  provided  by  the  kindness  of  friends, 
from  their  own  private  resources,  and  from  those  of  "The  Wo 
man's  Central  Association  of  Relief,"  already  in  active  and  benefi 
cent  operation  in  New  York. 

Their  work  was,  however,  principally  done  in  the  Patent 
Office  Hospital,  where  they  took  a  regular  charge  of  a  certain 
number  of  patients,  and  rendered  excellent  service,  where  service 
was,  at  that  time,  greatly  needed. 

While  thus  engaged  they  were  one  day  invited  by  a  friend 
from  New  York  to  take  a  drive  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 
Washington  was  at  that  time  like  a  great  camp,  and  was  envi 
roned  by  fortifications,  with  the  camps  of  different  divisions, 
brigades,  regiments,  to  each  of  which  were  attached  the  larger 
and  smaller  hospitals,  where  the  sick  and  suffering  languished, 
afar  from  the  comforts  and  affectionate  cares  of  home,  and  not  yet 
inured  to  the  privations  and  discomforts  of  army  life.  It  can 
without  doubt  be  said  that  they  were  patient,  and  when  we 
remember  that  the  most  of  them  were  volunteers,  fresh  from 
home,  and  new  to  war,  that  perhaps  was  all  that  could  reason 
ably  be  expected  of  them. 

The  drive  of  Mrs.  Gibbons,  and  her  friends  extended  further 
than  was  at  first  intended,  and  they  found  themselves  at  Fall's 
Church,  fifteen  miles  from  the  city.  Here  was  a  small  force  of 
New  York  troops,  and  their  hospital  containing  about  forty  men, 
most  of  them  very  sick  with  typhoid  fever. 

Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her  daughter  entered  the  hospital.     All 


MRS.  A.  H.  GIBBONS   AND   MISS   SARAH    H.  GIBBONS.         469 

around  were  the  emaciated  forms,  and  pale,  suffering  faces  of  the 
men — their  very  looks  an  appeal  for  kindness  which  it  was  hardly 
possible  for  these  ladies  to  resist. 

One  of  them,  a  young  man  from  Penn  Yan,  New  York,  fixed 
his  sad  imploring  gaze  upon  the  face  of  Mrs.  Gibbons.  Pale  as 
if  the  seal  of  death  had  already  been  set  upon  his  features,  dread 
fully  emaciated,  and  too  feeble  for  the  least  movement,  except 
those  of  the  large,  dark,  restless  eyes,  which  seemed  by  the  very 
intensity  of  their  expression  to  draw  her  toward  him.  She 
approached  and  compassionately  asked  if  there  was  anything  she 
could  do  for  him.  The  reply  seemed  to  throw  upon  her  a  respon 
sibility  too  heavy  to  be  borne. 

"Come  and  take  care  of  me,  and  I  shall  get  well.  If  you  do 
not  come,  I  shall  die." 

It  was  very  hard  to  say  she  could  not  come,  and  with  the  con 
stantly  recurring  thought  of  his  words,  every  moment  made  it 
harder.  It  was,  however,  impossible  at  that  time. 

After  distributing  some  little  offerings  they  had  brought,  the 
party  was  forced  to  leave,  carrying  with  them  a  memory  of  such 
suffering  and  misery  as  they  had  not  before  encountered.  Fall's 
Church  was  situated  in  a  nest  of  secessionists,  who  would  have 
been  open  rebels  except  for  the  presence  of  the  troops.  No 
woman  had  ever  shown  her  face  within  the  walls  of  its  hospital. 
The  routine  of  duty  had  probably  been  obeyed,  but  there  had 
been  little  sympathy  and  only  the  blundering  care  of  men,  en 
tirely  ignorant  of  the  needs  of  the  sick.  The  men  were  dying 
rapidly,  and  the  number  in  the  hospital  fast  diminishing,  not  by 
convalescence,  but  by  death. 

After  she  had  gone  away,  the  scene  constantly  recurred  to  Mrs. 
Gibbons,  and  she  felt  that  a  field  of  duty  opened  before  her,  which 
she  had  no  right  to  reject.  In  a  few  days  an  opportunity  for 
another  visit  occurred,  which  was  gladly  embraced.  The  young 
volunteer  was  yet  living,  but  too  feeble  to  speak.  Again  his  eyes 
mutely  implored  help,  and  seemed  to  say  that  only  that  could 


470  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

beat  back  the  advances  of  death.  This  time  both  ladies  had  come 
with  the  intention  of  remaining. 

The  surgeon  was  ready  to  welcome  them,  but  told  them  there 
was  no  place  for  them  to  live.  But  that  difficulty  was  overcome, 
as  difficulties  almost  always  are  by  a  determined  will.  The  pro 
prietor  of  a  neighboring  "  saloon,"  or  eating-house,  was  persuaded 
to  give  the  ladies  a  loft  floored  with  unplaned  boards,  and  boast 
ing  for  its  sole  furniture,  a  bedstead  and  a  barrel  to  serve  as  table 
and  toilet.  Here  for  the  sum  of  five  dollars  per  week,  each,  they 
svere  allowed  to  sleep,  and  they  took  their  meals  below. 

There  were  at  the  date  of  their  arrival  thirty-nine  sick  men  in 
the  hospital,  and  six  lay  unburied  in  the  dead-house.  Two  or 
three  others  died,  and  when  they  left,  five  or  six  weeks  afterward, 
all  had  recovered,  sufficiently  at  least  to  bear  removal,  save  three 
whom  they  left  convalescing.  The  young  volunteer  who  had 
fastened  his  hope  of  life  on  their  coming,  had  been  able  to  be 
removed  to  his  home,  at  Penn  Yan,  and  they  afterwards  learned 
that  he  had  entirely  recovered  his  health. 

Under  their  reign,  cleanliness,  order,  quiet,  and  comfortable  food, 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  discomfort  that  previously  existed. 
The  sick  were  encouraged  by  sympathy,  and  stimulated  by  it, 
and  though  they  had  persisted  in  their  effort  through  great  hard 
ship,  and  even  danger,  for  they  were  very  near  the  enemy's  lines, 
they  felt  themselves  fully  rewarded  for  all  their  toils  and  sacri 
fices. 

During  the  month  of  January,  their  patients  having  nearly  all 
recovered,  Mrs.  and  Miss  Gibbons,  cheerfully  obeyed  a  request  to 
proceed  to  Winchester,  and  take  their  places  in  the  Seminary 
Hospital  there.  This  hospital  was  at  that  time  devoted  to  the 
worst  cases  ofwounded. 

There  were  a  large  number  of  these  in  this  place,  most  of 
them  severely  wounded,  as  has  been  said,  and  many  of  them 
dangerously  so.  The  closest  and  most  assiduous  care  was  de 
manded,  and  the  ladies  found  themselves  at  once  in  a  position  to 


MRS.  A.  H.  GIBBONS    AND    MISS    SARAH    H.  GIBBONS.         471 

tax  all  their  strength  and  efforts.  They  were  in  this  hospital 
over  four  months,  and  afterwards  at  Strasburg,  where  they  were 
involved  in  the  famous  retreat  from  that  place,  when  the  enemy 
took  possession,  and  held  the  hospital  nurses,  even,  as  prisoners, 
till  the  main  body  of  their  army  was  safely  on  the  road  that  led 
to  Dixie. 

Many  instances  of  that  retreat  are  of  historical  interest,  but 
space  forbids  their  repetition  here.  It  is  enough  to  state  that 
these  ladies  heroically  bore  the  discomfort  of  their  position,  and 
their  own  losses  in  stores  and  clothing,  regretting  only  that  it  was 
out  of  their  power  to  secure  the  comforts  of  the  wounded,  who 
were  hurried  from  their  quarters,  jolted  in  ambulances  in  torture, 
or  compelled  to  drag  their  feeble  limbs  along  the  encumbered 
road. 

After  the  retreat,  and  the  subsequent  abandonment  of  the  Val 
ley  by  the  enemy,  Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her  daughter  returned  for  a 
short  time  to  their  home  in  New  York. 

Their  rest,  however,  was  not  long,  for  on  the  19th  of  July, 
they  arrived  at  Point  Lookout,  Maryland,  where  Hammond 
United  States  General  Hospital  was  about  to  be  opened. 

On  the  20th,  the  day  following,  the  first  installment  of  patients 
arrived,  two  hundred  and  eighteen  suffering  and  famished  men 
from  the  rebel  prison  of  Belle  Isle. 

A  fearful  scene  was  presented  on  the  arrival  of  these  men. 
The  transport  on  which  they  came  was  full  of  miserable-look 
ing  wretches,  lying  about  the  decks,  many  of  them  too  feeble 
to  walk,  and  unable  to  move  without  help.  Not  one  of  the  two 
hundred  and  eighty,  possessed  more  than  one  garment.  Before 
leaving  Belle  Isle,  they  had  been  permitted  to  bathe.  The  filthy, 
vermin-infected  garments,  which  had  been  their  sole  covering  for 
many  months,  were  in  most  cases  thrown  into  the  water,  and  the 
men  had  clothed  themselves  as  best  they  could,  in  the  scanty 
supply  given  them.  Many  were  wrapped  in  sheets.  A  pair  of 
trowsers  was  a  luxury  to  which  few  attained. 


472 

They  were  mostly  so  feeble  as  to  be  carried  on  stretchers  to 
the  hospital.  Mrs.  Gibbons'  first  duty  was  to  go  on  board  the 
transport  with  food,  wine  and  stimulants,  to  enable  them  to 
endure  the  removal ;  and  when  once  removed,  and  placed  in  their 
clean  beds,  or  wards,  there  was  sufficient  employment  in  reducing 
all  to  order,  and  nursing  them  back  to  health.  Many  were  hope 
lessly  broken  down  by  their  past  sufferings,  but  most  eventually 
recovered  their  strength. 

Mrs.  and  Miss  Gibbons  remained  at  Point  Lookout  fifteen 
months.  After  a  short  time  Mrs.  Gibbons  finding  her  usefulness 
greatly  impaired  by  being  obliged  to  act  under  the  authority  of 
Miss  Dix,  who  was  officially  at  the  head  of  all  nurses,  applied  for, 
and  received  from  Surgeon-General  Hammond  an  independent 
appointment  in  this  hospital,  which  gave  her  sole  charge  of  it, 
apart  from  the  medical  supervision.  In  this  appointment  the 
Surgeon-General  was  sustained  by  the  War  Department.  In  her 
application  Mrs.  Gibbons  was  influenced  by  no  antagonism  to 
Miss  Dix,  but  simply  by  her  desire  for  the  utmost  usefulness. 

The  military  post  of  Point  Lookout  was  at  that  time  occupied 
by  two  Maryland  Regiments,  of  whom  Colonel  Rogers  had  the 
command.  If  not  in  sympathy  with  rebellion,  they  undoubtedly 
were  with  slavery.  Large  numbers  of  contrabands  had  flocked 
thither,  hoping  to  be  protected  in  their  longings  for  freedom. 
In  this,  however,  they  were  disappointed.  As  soon  as  the  Mary 
land  masters  demanded  the  return  of  their  absconding  property, 
the  Maryland  soldiers  were  not  only  willing  to  accede  to  the 
demand,  but  to  aid  in  enforcing  it. 

Mrs.  Gibbons  found  herself  in  a  continual  unpleasant  conflict 
with  the  authorities.  Sympathy,  feeling,  sense  of  justice,  the 
principles  of  a  life,  were  all  on  the  side  of  the  enslaved,  and  their 
attempt  to  escape.  She  worked  for  them,  helped  them  to  evade 
the  demands  of  their  former  masters,  and  often  sent  them  on  their 
way  toward  the  goal  of  their  hopes  and  efforts,  the  mysterious 
North. 


MRS.  A.  H.  GIBBONS   AND    MISS   SARAH   H.  GIBBONS.         473 

She  endured  persecution,  received  annoyances,  anonymous 
threats,  and  had  much  to  bear,  which  was  borne  cheerfully  for 
the  sake  of  these  oppressed  ones.  General  Lockwood,  then  com 
mander  of  the  post,  was  always  the  friend  of  herself  and  her  pro 
teges,  a  man  of  great  kindness  of  heart,  and  a  lover  of  justice. 

As  has  been  said,  they  remained  at  Point  Lookout  fifteen 
months.  The  summer  following  her  introduction  to  the  place, 
Mrs.  Gibbons  visited  home,  and  after  remaining  but  a  short  time 
returned  to  her  duties.  She  had  left  all  at  home  tranquil  and 
serene,  and  did  not  dream  of  the  hidden  fires  which  were  even 
then  smouldering,  and  ready  to  burst  into  flame. 

She  had  not  long  returned  before  rumors  of  the  riots  in  New 
York,  the  riots  of  July,  1863,  reached  Point  Lookout. 

"  If  private  houses  are  attacked,  ours  will  be  one  of  the  first," 
said  Miss  Gibbons,  on  the  reception  of  these  tidings,  and  though 
her  mother  would  not  listen  to  the  suggestion,  she  very  well 
knew  it  was  far  from  impossible. 

That  night  they  retired  full  of  apprehension,  and  had  not 
fallen  asleep  when  some  one  knocked  at  their  door  with  the  inti 
mation  that  bad  news  had  arrived  for  them.  They  asked  if  any 
one  was  dead,  and  on  being  assured  that  there  was  not,  listened 
with  comparative  composure  when  they  learned  that  their  house 
in  New  York  had  been  sacked  by  the  mob,  and  most  of  its  con 
tents  destroyed. 

The  remainder  of  the  night  was  spent  in  packing,  and  in  the 
morning  they  started  for  home. 

It  was  a  sad  scene  that  presented  itself  on  their  arrival.  There 
was  not  an  unbroken  pane  of  glass  in  any  of  the  windows.  The 
panels  of  the  doors  were  many  of  them  beaten  in  as  with  an  axe. 
The  furniture  was  mostly  destroyed,  bureaus,  desks,  closets, 
receptacles  of  all  kinds  had  been  broken  open,  and  their  contents 
stolen  or  rendered  worthless;  the  carpets,  soaked  with  a  trampled 
conglomerate  of  mud  and  water,  oil  and  filth,  the  debris  left  by 
the  feet  of  the  maddened,  howling  crowd,  were  entirely  ruined; 

GO 


474  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

beds  and  bedding,  mirrors,  and  smaller  articles  had  been  carried 
away,  the  grand  piano  had  had  a  fire  kindled  on  the  key-board, 
as  had  the  sofas  and  chairs  upon  their  velvet  seats,  fires  that 
were,  none  knew  how,  extinguished. 

Over  all  were  scattered  torn  books  and  valuable  papers,  the 
correspondence  with  the  great  minds  of  the  country  for  years, 
trampled  into  the  grease  and  filth,  half  burned  and  defaced. 
The  relics  of  the  precious  only  son,  who  had  died  a  few  years 
before — the  beautiful  memorial  room,  filled  with  pictures  he  had 
loved,  beautiful  vases,  where  flowers  always  bloomed;  and  a 
thousand  tokens  of  the  loved  and  lost,  had  shared  the  universal 
ruin.  So  had  the  writings  and  the  clothing  of  the  lamented 
father,  Isaac  T.  Hopper — of  all  these  priceless  mementoes,  there 
remained  only  the  marble,  life-size,  bust  of  the  son,  which  Mr. 
Gibbons  had  providentially  removed  to  a  place  of  safety,  and  a 
few  minor  objects.  And  all  this  ruin,  and  irreparable  loss,  had 
been  visited  upon  this  charitable  and  patriotic  family,  by  a  furi 
ous,  demoniac  mob,  because  they  loved  Freedom,  Justice,  and 
their  country. 

After  this  disaster  the  family  were  united  beneath  a  hired  roof 
for  some  time,  while  their  own  house  was  repaired,  and  the  frag 
ments  of  its  scattered  plenishing,  and  abundant  treasures,  were 
gathered  together  and  reclaimed. 

Mrs.  Gibbons  returned  for  a  brief  space  to  Point  Lookout, 
where  her  purpose  was  to  instal  the  Misses  Woolsey,  and  then 
leave  them  in  charge  of  the  hospital. 

Circumstances,  however,  prevented  her  from  leaving  the  Point 
for  a  much  longer  period  than  she  had  intended  to  stay,  and  when 
she  did  leave,  she  was  accompanied  by  the  Misses  Woolsey,  and 
the  whole  party  returned  to  New  York  together. 

We  have  no  record  of  the  further  army  work  of  Mrs.  and  Miss 
Gibbons  until  the  opening  of  the  grand  campaign  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  the  following  May. 

Immediately  after  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  Mrs.  Gibbons 


MRS.  A.  H.  GIBBONS    AND   MISS   SARAH    H.  GIBBONS.         475 

received  a  telegram  desiring  her  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
wounded.  She  resolved  at  once  to  go,  and  urged  her  daughter 
to  accompany  her,  as  she  had  always  done  before.  Miss  Gibbons 
had,  in  the  meantime,  married,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks 
become  a  widow.  She  felt  reluctant  to  return  to  the  work  she 
had  so  loved,  but  her  mother's  wish  prevailed.  The  next  day 
they  started,  and  in  a  very  short  space  of  time  found  themselves 
amidst  the  horrible  confusion  and  suffering  which  prevailed  at 
Belle  Plain. 

Their  stay  there  was  but  brief,  and  in  a  short  time  they  were 
themselves  established  at  Fredericksburg.  There  Mrs.  Gibbons 
was  requested  to  take  charge  of  a  hospital,  or  rather  a  large 
unfurnished  building,  which  was  to  be  used  as  one.  In  great 
haste  straw  was  found  to  fill  the  empty  bed-sacks,  which  were 
placed  upon  the  floor,  and  the  means  to  feed  the  suffering  mass 
who  were  expected.  The  men,  in  all  the  forms  of  suffering,  were 
placed  upon  these  beds,  and  cared  for  as  well  as  they  could  be, 
as  fast  as  they  arrived,  and  Mrs.  Emerson  prepared  food  for 
them,  standing  unsheltered  in  rain  or  sultry  heat. 

For  weeks  they  toiled  thus.  One  day  when  the  town  was 
beautiful  and  fragrant  with  the  early  roses,  some  regiments  of 
Northern  soldiers  landed  and  marched  through  the  town,  on  their 
way  to  the  front.  The  patriotic  women  gathered  there,  cheered 
them  as  they  marched  on,  and  gathered  roses  which  they  offered 
in  a  fragrant  shower,  with  which  the  men  decorated  caps  and 
button-holes.  They  passed  on ;  but  two  days  later  the  long  train 
of  ambulances  crept  down  the  hill,  bringing  back  these  heroes  to 
their  pitying  countrywomen,  the  roses  withering  on  their  breasts, 
and  dyed  with  their  sacred  patriot  blood. 

Through  all  the  horrors  of  this  sad  campaign,  Mrs.  Gibbons 
and  Mrs.  Emerson  remained,  doing  whatever  their  hands  could 
find  to  do.  When  Fredericksburg  was  evacuated,  they  accom 
panied  the  soldiers,  riding  in  the  open  box-cars,  and  on  the  way 
administering  to  them  as  they  could. 


476  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAK. 

They  were  for  a  time  at  White  House,  where  thousands  of 
wounded  required  and  received  their  aid,  and  afterwards  at  City 
Point,  where  they  remained  for  several  weeks  in  charge  of  the 
hospital  of  the  Second  Division,  being  from  first  to  last,  among 
the  most  useful  of  the  many  noble  women  who  were  engaged  in 
this  work. 

After  their  return  home,  Mrs.  Gibbons  accepted  an  appoint 
ment  at  the  hospital  in  Beverly,  New  Jersey,  where  she  had 
charge  under  Dr.  Wagner,  the  excellent  surgeon  she  had  known, 
and  to  whom  she  had  become  much  attached,  at  Point  Lookout. 
As  usual,  Mrs.  Emerson  accompanied  her  to  this  place,  and  lent 
her  efforts  to  the  great  work  to  which  both  had  devoted  them 
selves. 

There  were  about  nineteen  hundred  patients  in  this  hospital, 
and  the  duties  were  arduous.  They  boarded  with  the  family  of 
Dr.  Wagner,  adjacent  to  the  hospital,  and  after  the  labors  of  the 
day  were  mostly  finished,  they  went  there  to  dine,  at  seven  o'clock. 
Often,  despite  pleasant  conversation,  and  attractive  viands,  the 
sense  of  fatigue,  before  unfelt,  Avould  attack  Mrs.  Gibbons,  and  at 
the  table  she  would  fall  asleep.  But  the  morning  would  find  her 
with  strength  restored,  and  ready  for  the  toil  of  the  coming  day. 

The  winter  of  1865  will  long  be  remembered  in  New  York  for 
the  ravages  of  small-pox  in  that  city.  The  victims  were  not  con 
fined  to  any  class,  or  locality,  and  there  were  perhaps  as  many  in 
the  homes  of  wealth,  as  in  the  squalid  dwelling-places  of  the  poor. 

Mrs.  Gibbons  was  suddenly  summoned  home  to  nurse  her 
youngest  daughter,  in  an  attack  of  varioloid.  This  was  accom 
plished,  and  the  young  lady  recovered.  But  this  closed  the  army 
labors  of  the  mother.  She  did  not  return,  though  Mrs.  Emerson 
remained  till  the  close  of  the  hospital  the  following  spring,  when 
the  end  of  the  war  rendered  their  further  services  in  this  work 
unnecessary,  and  they  once  more  found  themselves  settled  in  the 
quiet  of  home. 


MRS.    E.    J.    RUSSELL. 


E  have  spoken  in  previous  sketches  of  the  faithfulness 
and  devotion  of  many  of  the  government  nurses,  ap 
pointed  by  Miss  Dix.  No  salary,  certainly  not  the 
meagre  pittance  doled  out  by  the  government  could 
compensate  for  such  services,  and  the  only  satisfactory  reason 
which  can  be  offered  for  their  willingness  to  render  them,  is  that 
their  hearts  were  inspired  by  a  patriotism  equally  ardent  with 
that  svhich  actuated  their  wealthier  sisters,  and  that  this  pitiful 
salary,  hardly  that  accorded  to  a  green  Irish  girl  just  arrived  in 
this  country  from  the  bogs  of  Erin,  was  accepted  rather  as 
affording  them  the  opportunity  to  engage  more  readily  in  their 
work,  than  from  any  other  cause.  In  many  instances  it  was 
expended  in  procuring  necessary  food  or  luxuries  for  their  soldier- 
patients,  and  in  others,  served  to  prevent  dependence  upon  friends, 
who  had  the  disposition  but  perhaps  hardly  the  ability  to  furnish 
these  heroic  and  self-denying  nurses  with  the  clothing  or  pocket- 
money  they  needed  in  their  work. 

It  is  of  one  of  these  nurses,  a  lady  of  mature  age,  a  widow,  that 
we  have  now  to  speak.  Mrs.  E.  J.  Russell,  of  Plattekill,  Ulster 
County,  New  York,  was  at  the  commencement  of  the  war  engaged 
in  teaching  in  New  York  city.  In  common  with  the  other  ladies 
of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  in  Ninth  Street,  of  which  she 
was  a  member,  she  worked  for  the  soldiers  at  every  spare  moment, 
but  the  cause  seemed  to  her  to  need  her  personal  services  in  the 
hospital,  and  in  ministrations  to  the  wounded  o  sick,  and  when 

477 


478  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  call  came  for  nurses,  she  waited  upon  Miss  Dix,  was  accepted, 
and  sent  first  to  the  Regimental  Hospital  of  the  Twentieth  New 
York  Militia,  National  Guard,  then  stationed  at  Annapolis  Junc 
tion.  On  arriving  there  she  found  that  the  regiment  consisted 
of  men  from  her  own  county,  her  former  neighbors  and  acquaint 
ances.  The  regiment  was  soon  after  ordered  to  Baltimore,  and 
being  in  the  three  months'  service,  was  mustered  out  soon  after, 
and  Mrs.  Russell  was  assigned  by  Miss  Dix  to  Columbia  College 
Hospital,  Washington.  Here  she  remained  in  the  quiet  discharge 
of  her  duties,  until  June,  1864,  not  without  many  trials  and  dis 
comforts,  for  the  position  of  the  hired  nurse  in  these  hospitals 
about  Washington,  was  often  rendered  very  uncomfortable  by  the 
discourtesy  of  the  young  assistant  surgeons.  Her  devotion  to  her 
duties  had  been  so  intense  that  her  health  was  seriously  impaired, 
and  she  resigned,  but  after  a  short  period  of  rest,  her  strength 
was  sufficiently  recruited  for  her  to  resume  her  labors,  and  she 
reported  for  duty  at  West  Building  Hospital,  Baltimore,  where 
she  remained  until  after  Lee's  surrender.  She  was  in  the  service 
altogether  four  years,  lacking  eighteen  days.  During  this  time 
nine  hundred  and  eighty-five  men  were  under  her  care,  for  vary 
ing  periods  from  a  few  days  to  thirteen  months;  of  these  ninety 
died,  and  she  closed  the  eyes  of  seventy-six  of  them.  Her  ser 
vice  in  Baltimore  was  in  part  among  our  returned  prisoners,  from 
Belle  Isle,  Libby  and  other  prisons,  and  in  part  among  the 
wounded  rebel  prisoners. 

Many  of  the  incidents  which  Mrs.  Russell  relates  of  the 
wounded  who  passed  under  her  care  are  very  touching.  Many 
of  her  earlier  patients  were  in  the  delirium  of  typhoid  fever,  and 
her  ears  and  heart  were  often  pained  in  hearing  their  piteous  calls 
for  their  loved  ones  to  come  to  them, — to  forgive  them — or  to 
help  them.  Often  had  she  occasion  to  offer  the  consolations  of 
religion  to  those  who  were  evidently  nearing  the  river  of  death, 
and  sometimes  she  was  made  happy  in  finding  that  those  who 
were  suffering  terribly  from  racking  pain,  or  the  agony  of  wounds, 


MRS.    E.  J.  RUSSELL.  479 

were  comforted  and  cheered  by  her  efforts  to  bring  them  to  think 
of  the  Saviour.  One  of  these,  suffering  from  an  intense  fever,  as 
she  seated  herself  by  the  side  of  his  cot,  and  asked  him  in  her 
quiet  gentle  way,  if  he  loved  Jesus  as  his  Saviour,  clasped  her 
hand  in  his  and  folding  it  to  his  heart,  asked  so  earnestly,  "Do 
you  love  Jesus  too?  Oh,  yes.,  I  love  him.  I  do  not  fear  to  die, 
for  then  I  shall  join  my  dear  mother  Avho  taught  me  to  love  him." 
He  then  repeated  with  great  distinctness  a  stanza  of  the  hymn, 
"Jesus  can  make  a  dying  bed,"  etc;.,  and  inquired  if  she  could 
sing.  She  could  not,  but  she  read  several  hymns  to  him.  His 
joy  and  peace  made  him  apparently  oblivious  of  his  suffering 
from  the  fever,  and  he  endeavored  as  well  as  his  failing  strength 
would  permit,  to  tell  her  of  his  hopes  of  immortality,  and  to  com 
mend  to  her  prayers  his  only  and  orphaned  sister. 

Another,  a  poor  fellow  from  Maine,  dying  of  diphtheria,  asked 
her  to  pray  for  him  and  to  read  to  him  from  the  Bible.  She  com 
mended  him  tenderly  to  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  soon  had  the 
happiness  of  seeing,  even  amid  his  sufferings,  that  his  face  was 
radiant  with  joy.  He  selected  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  which  he 
wished  her  to  read,  and  then  sent  messages  by  her  to  his  mother 
and  friends,  uttering  the  words  with  great  difficulty,  but  passing 
away  evidently  in  perfect  peace. 

Since  the  war,  Mrs.  Russell  has  resumed  her  profession  as  a 
teacher  at  Newburgh,  New  York. 


MRS.   MARY  W.   LEE.. 


T  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  a  considerable  number 
of  the  most  faithful  and  active  workers  in  the  hospitals 
and  in  other  labors  for  the  soldier  during  the  late  war, 
should  have  been  of  foreign  birth.  Their  patriotism 
and  benevolence  was  fully  equal  to  that  of  our  women  born  under 
the  banner  of  the  stars,  and  their  joy  at  the  final  triumph  of  our 
arms  was  as  fervent  and  hearty.  Our  readers  will  recall  among 
these  noble  women,  Miss  Wormeley,  Miss  Clara  Davis,  Miss 
Jessie  Home,  Mrs.  General  Ricketts,  Mrs.  General  Turchin, 
Bridget  Divers,  and  others. 

Among  the  natives  of  a  foreign  land,  but  thoroughly  American 
in  every  fibre  of  her  being,  Mrs.  Mary  W.  Lee  stands  among  the 
foremost  of  the  earnest  persistent  toilers  of  the  great  army  of 
philanthropists.  She  was  born  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  of  Scotch 
parentage,  but  came  with  her  parents  to  the  United  States  when 
she  was  five  years  of  age,  and  has  ever  since  made  Philadelphia 
her  home.  Here  she  married  Mr.  Lee,  a  gold  refiner,  and  a  man 
pf  great  moral  worth.  An  interesting  family  had  grown  up 
around  them,  all,  like  their  parents  thoroughly  patriotic.  One 
son  enlisted  early  in  the  war,  first,  we  believe,  in  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Reserve  Corps,  and  afterward  in  the  Seventy-second  Penn 
sylvania  Volunteers,  and  served  throughout  the  war,  and  though 
often  in  peril,  escaped  any  severe  wounds.  A  daughter,  Miss 
Amanda  Lee,  imbued  with  her  mother's  spirit,  accompanied  her 

480 


AIRS.  MAIiV     W    LEE  481 

in  most  of  her  labors,  and  emulated  her  example  of  active  use 
fulness. 

Mrs.  Lee  was  one  of  the  noble  band  of  women  whose  hearts 
were  moved  with  the  desire  to  do  something  for  our  soldiers, 
when  they  were  first  hastening  to  the  war  in  April,  1861,  and  in 
the  organization  of  the  Volunteer  Eefreshment  Saloon  at  Phila 
delphia,  an  institution  which  fed,  during  the  war,  four  hundred 
thousand  of  our  soldiers  as  they  passed  to  and  from  the  battle 
fields,  and  brought  comfort  and  solace  to  many  thousands  of  the 
sick  and  wounded,  she  was  one  of  the  most  active  and  faithful 
members  of  its  committee.  The  regiments  often  arrived  at, mid 
night  ;  but  whatever  the  hour,  whether  night  or  day,  at  the  firing 
of  the  signal  gun,  which  announced  that  troops  were  on  their 
way  to  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Lee  and  her  co-workers  hastened  to 
the  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon,  near  the  Navy  Yard, 
and  prepared  an  ample  repast  for  the  soldiers,  caring  at  the  same 
time  for  any  sick  or  wounded  among  them.  JSTo  previous  fatigue 
or  weariness,  no  inclemency  of  the  weather,  or  darkness  of  the 
night  was  regarded  by  these  heroic  women  as  a  valid  excuse  from 
these  self-imposed  duties  or  rather  this  glorious  privilege,  for  so 
they  deemed  it,  of  ministering  to  the  comfort  of  the  defenders  of 
the  Union.  And  through  the  whole  four  and  a-third  years  dur 
ing  which  troops  passed  through  Philadelphia,  no  regiment  or 
company  ever  passed  unfed.  The  supplies  as  well  as  the  patience 
and  perseverance  of  the  women  held  out  to  the  end,  and  scores 
of  thousands  who  but  for  their  voluntary  labors  and  beneficence 
must  have  suffered  severely  from  hunger,  had  occasion  to  bless 
God  for  the  philanthropy  and  practical  benevolence  of  the  women 
of  Philadelphia. 

But  this  field  of  labor,  "broad  as  it  was,  did  not  fully  satisfy  the 
patriotic  ardor  of  Mrs.  Lee.  She  had  heard  of  the  sufferings  and 
privations  endured  by  our  soldiers  at  the  front,  and  in  hospitals 
remote  from  the  cities ;  and  she  longed  to  go  and  minister  to  their 

wants.     Fortunately,  she  could  be  spared  for  a  time  at  least  from 
ci 


482  WOMAN  S   WORK    IX   THE   CIVIL   WAR. 

her  home.  Though  of  middle  age,  she  possessed  a  vigorous  con-. 
stitution,  capable  of  enduring  all  necessary  hardships,  and  was  in 
full  health  and  strength.  She  was  well  known  as  a  skilful  cook, 
an  admirable  nurse,  and  an  excellent  manager  of  household  affairs. 
The  sickness  of  some  members  of  her  family  delayed  her  for  a 
time,  but  when  this  obstacle  was  removed,  she  felt  that  she  could 
not  longer  be  detained  from  her  chosen  work.  It  was  July,  1862, 
the  period  when  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  exhausted  by  its 
wearisome  march  and  fearful  battles  of  the  seven  days,  lay  almost 
helpless  at  Harrison's  Landing.  The  sick  poisoned  by  the  ma 
laria  of  the  Chickahominy  Swamps,  and  the  wounded,  shattered 
and  maimed  wrecks  of  humanity  from  the  great  battles,  were 
being  sent  off  by  thousands  to  the  hospitals  of  Washington,  Bal 
timore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  New  England,  and  yet 
other  thousands  lay  in  the  wretched  field  hospitals  around  the 
Landing,  with  but  scant  care,  and  in  utter  wretchedness  and 
misery.  The  S.  R.  Spaulding,  one  of  the  steamers  assigned  to 
the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  for  its  Hospital  Trans 
port  Service,  had  brought  to  Philadelphia  a  heavy  cargo  of  the 
sick  and  wounded,  and  was  about  to  return  for  another,  when 
Mrs.  Lee,  supplied  with  stores  by  the  Union  Volunteer  Refresh 
ment  Committee,  and  her  personal  friends,  embarked  upon  it  for 
Harrison's  Landing,  where  she  was  to  be  associated  with  Mrs. 
John  Harris  in  caring  for  the  soldiers.  The  Spaulding  arrived 
in  due  time  in  the  James  River,  and  lay  off  in  the  stream  while 
the  Ruffin  house  was  burning.  On  landing,  Mrs.  Lee  found 
Mrs.  Harris,  and  the  Rev.  Isaac  O.  Sloan,  one  of  the  Agents  of 
the  Christian  Commission  ready  to  welcome  her  to  the  toilsome 
duties  that  were  before  her.  Wretched  indeed  was  the  condition 
of  the  poor  sick  men,  lying  in  mildewed,  leaky  tents  without 
floors,  and  the  pasty  tenacious  mud  ankle  deep  around  them,  the 
raging  thirst  and  burning  fever  of  the  marshes  consuming  them, 
with  only  the  warm  and  impure  river  water  to  drink,  and  little 
even  of  this;  with  but  a  small  supply  of  medicines,  and  no  food 


MRS.  MARY   W.  LEE.  483 

or  delicacies  suitable  for  the  sick,  the  bean  soup,  unctuous  with 
rancid  pork  fat,  forming  the  principal  article  of  low  diet;  uncheered 
by  kind  words  or  tender  sympathy,  it  is  hardly  matter  of  surprise 
that  hundreds  of  as  gallant  men  as  ever  entered  the  army  died 
here  daily. 

The  supplies  of  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Commissions,  and 
those  sent  to  Mrs.  Harris  and  Mrs.  Lee,  from  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society,  and  the  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment  Committee,  ad 
ministered  by  such  skilful  nurses  as  Mrs.  Harris  and  Mrs.  Lee, 
Mrs.  Fales,  Mrs.  Husband,  and  Miss  Hall,  soon  changed  the  as 
pect  of  affairs,  and  though  the  malarial  fever  still  raged,  there 
was  a  better  chance  of  recovery  from  it,  and  the  sick  men  were 
as  rapidly  as  possible  transferred  to  a  better  climate,  and  a  health 
ier  atmosphere.  In  the  latter  part  of  August,  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  having  left  the  James  River  for  Acquia  Creek  and 
Alexandria,  Mrs.  Lee  returned  home  for  a  brief  visit. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  she  started  for  Washington,  to  enter 
again  upon  her  chosen  work.  Finding  that  the  Army  were  just 
about  moving  into  Maryland,  she  spent  a  few  days  in  the  Hos 
pital  of  the  Epiphany  at  Washington,  nursing  the  sick  and 
wounded  there;  but  learning  that  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were 
in  hot  pursuit  of  the  Rebel  Army,  and  that  a  severe  battle  was 
impending,  she  could  not  rest;  she  determined  to  be  near  the 
troops,  so  that  when  the  battle  came,  she  might  be  able  to  render 
prompt  assistance  to  the  wounded.  It  was  almost  impossible  to 
obtain  transportation,  the  demand  for  the  movement  of  sustenance 
and  ammunition  for  the  army  filling  every  wagon,  and  still  prov 
ing  insufficient  for  their  wants ;  but  by  the  kind  permission  of 
Captain  Gleason  of  the  Seventy-first  Pennsylvania  Volunteers, 
she  was  permitted  to  follow  with  her  stores  in  a  forage  wagon, 
and  arrived  at  the  rear  of  the  army  the  night  before  the  battle  of 
Antietam.  The  battle  commenced  with  the  dawn  on  the  17th 
of  September,  and  during  its  progress,  she  was  stationed  on  the 
Sharpsburg  road,  where  she  had  her  supplies  and  two  large  tubs 


484  WOMAN'S  WOT-LC  IN  T.HK  CIVIL  WAR. 

of  water,  one  to  bathe  and  bind  up  the  wounds  of  those  who  had 
fallen  in  the  fight,  and  the  other  to  refresh  them  when  suffering 
from  the  terrible  thirst  which  gun-shot  wounds  always  produce. 
As  the  hours  drew  on,  the  contents  of  one  assumed  a  deeper  and 
yet  deeper  crimson  hue  and  the  seemingly  ample  supply  of  the 
other  grew  less  and  less.  Her  supply  of  soft  bread  had  given 
out,  and  she  had  bought  of  an  enterprising  sutler  who  had  pushed 
his  way  to  a  place  of  danger  in  the  hope  of  gain,  at  ten  and 
twenty  cents  a  loaf,  till  her  money  was  nearly  exhausted ;  but  to 
the  honor  of  this  sutler,  it  should  be  said,  that  the  noble  example 
of  Mrs.  Lee,  in  seeking  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  wounded 
so  moved  his  feelings,  that  he  exclaimed,  "  Great  God !  I  can't 
stand  this  any  longer ;  Take  this  bread,  and  give  it  to  that  wo 
man,"  (Mrs.  Lee),  and  forgetting  for  the  time  the  greed  of  gain 
which  had  brought  him  thither,  he  lent  a  helping  hand  most  zeal 
ously  to  the  care  of  the  wounded.  During  the  day,  General  Me 
Clellan's  head-quarters  were  at  Boonsboro',  and  his  aids  were 
constantly  passing  back  and  forth  over  the  Sharpsburg  road,  near 
which  Mrs.  Lee  had  her  station. 

The  battle  closed  with  the  night-fall,  and  Mrs.  Lee  imme 
diately  went  into  the  Sedgwick  Division  Hospital,  where  were 
five  hundred  severely  wounded  men,  and  among  the  number, 
Major-General  Sedgwick.  Here  she  commenced  preparing  food 
for  the  wounded,  but  was  greatly  annoyed  by  a  gang  of  villain 
ous  camp  followers,  who  hung  around  her  fires  and  stole  every 
thing  from  them  if  she  was  engaged  for  a  moment.  At  last  she 
entered  the  hospital,  and  inquired  if  there  was  any  officer  there 
who  had  the  authority  to  order  her  a  guard.  General  Sedgwick 
immediately  responded  to  her  request,  by  authorizing  her  to  call 
upon  the  first  soldier  she  could  find  for  the  purpose,  and  she  had 
no  further  annoyance. 

She  remained  for  several  days  at  this  hospital,  doing  all  she 
could  with  the  means  at  her  command,  to  make  the  condition  of 
the  wounded  comfortable,  but  on  the  arrival  of  Mrs.  Arabella, 


MBS.  MARY    W.  LEE.  485 

Barlow,  whose  husband,  then  Colonel,  afterward  Major-General 
Barlow,  was  very  severely  wounded,  she  gave  up  the  charge  of 
this  hospital  to  her,  and  went  to  the  Hoffman  Farm's  Hospital, 
where  there  were  over  a  thousand  of  the  worst  cases.  Here  she 
was  the  only  lady  for  several  weeks,  until  the  hospital  was  re 
moved  to  Smoketown,  where  she  was  joined  by  Miss  M.  M.  C. 
Hall,  Mrs.  Husband,  Mrs.  Harris,  and  Miss  Tyson,  of  Baltimore. 
She  remained  at  Smoketown  General  Hospital,  nearly  three 
months.  The  worst  cases,  those  which  could  not  bear  removal 
to  Washington,  Baltimore,  or  Philadelphia,  were  collected  in  this 
hospital,  and  there  was  much  suffering  and  many  deaths  in  it. 

Mrs.  Lee  returned  home  on  the  14th  of  December,  1862,  and 
on  the  29th  of  the  same  month,  she  again  set  out  for  the  front, 
arriving  safely  at  Falmouth  on  the  31st,  where  the  wounded  of 
Fredericksburg  were  gathered  by  thousands.  After  four  weeks 
of  earnest  labor  here,  she  again  returned  home,  but  early  in 
March,  she  was  again  at  the  front,  in  the  Hospital  of  the  Second 
Corps,  which  had  been  removed  from  Falmouth  to  Potomac 
Creek.  She  continued  in  this  Hospital  until  the  battle  of  Chan- 
cellorsville,  when  she  went  up  to  the  Lacy  House,  at  Falmouth, 
to  assist  Mrs.  Harris  and  Mrs.  Beck.  She  accompanied  Mrs. 
Harris,  and  several  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  Christian  Commission 
in  an  Ambulance  to  take  nourishment  to  the  wounded  of  General 
Sedgwick's  command,  and  witnessed  the  taking  of  Marye's 
Heights,  the  balls  from  the  batteries  passing  over  the  heads  of 
her  company.  Her  anxiety  in  regard  to  this  conflict  was  height 
ened  by  the  fact  that  her  son  was  in  one  of  the  regiments  which 
made  the  charge  upon  the  Heights,  and  great  was  her  gratitude  in 
finding  that  he  was  not  among  the  wounded. 

After  the  wounded  were  sent  to  Washington  she  returned  to 
Potomac  Creek,  where  she  remained  until  Lee's  second  invasion 
of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  when  she  moved  with  the  army 
as  far  as  Fairfax  Court-House,  enduring  many  hardships.  From 
Fairfax  Court-House  she  went  to  Alexandria  to  await  the  result 


486 

of  the  movement,  and  after  some  delay  returned  home.  The 
battle  of  Gettysburg  called  her  again  into  the  field.  Arriving 
several  days  after  the  battle,  she  went  directly  to  the  Second 
Corps  Hospital,  and  labored  there  until  it  was  broken  up.  For 
her  services  in  this  hospital  she  received  from  the  officers  and 
men  a  gold  medal — a  trefoil,  beautifully  engraved,  and  with  an 
appropriate  inscription.  She  went  next  to  Camp  Letterman  Gen 
eral  Hospital,  where  she  remained  for  some  weeks,  her  stay  at 
Gettysburg  being  in  all  about  two  months.  Her  health  was  im 
paired  by  her  excessive  labors  at  Gettysburg  and  previously  in 
Virginia,  and  she  remained  at  home  for  a  longer  time  than  usual, 
giving  her  attention,  however,  meanwhile  to  the  Volunteer  Re 
freshment  Saloon,  but  early  in  February,  1864,  she  established 
herself  in  a  new  hospital  of  the  Second  Division,  Second  Corps, 
at  Brandy  Station,  Virginia.  Here,  soon  after,  her  daughter 
joined  her,  and  the  old  routine  of  the  hospital  at  Potomac  Creek 
was  soon  established.  Mrs.  Lee  has  the  faculty  of  making  the 
most  of  her  conveniences  and  supplies.  Her  daughter  writing 
home  from  this  hospital  thus  describes  the  furniture  of  her 
" Special  Diet  Kitchen:" — "Mother  has  a  small  stove;  until  this 
morning  it  has  smoked  very  much,  but  it  is  now  doing  very  well. 
The  top  is  about  half  a  yard  square.  On  this  she  is  now  boiling 
potatoes,  stewing  some  chicken-broth,  heating  a  kettle  of  water, 
and  has  a  large  bread-pudding  inside.  She  has  made  milk-punch, 
lemonade,  beef-tea,  stewed  cranberries,  and  I  cannot  think  what 
else  since  breakfast."  With  all  this  intense  activity  the  spiritual 
interests  of  her  patients  were  not  forgotten.  Mrs.  Lee  is  a  woman 
of  deep  and  unaffected  piety,  and  her  tact  in  speaking  a  word  in 
season,  and  in  bringing  the  men  under  religious  influences  was 
remarkable.  This  hospital  soon  became  remarkable  for  its  order, 
neatness  and  cheerfulness. 

The  order  of  General  Grant  on  the  15th  of  April,  1864,  for 
the  removal  of  all  civilians  from  the  army,  releastd  Mrs.  Lee  and 
Mrs.  Husband,  who  had  been  associated  with 'her,  from  their 


\ 

MRS.  MARY    W.  LEE.  487 

duties  at  Brandy  Station.  But  in  less  than  a  month  both  were 
recalled  to  the  temporary  base  of  the  army  at  Belle  Plain  and 
Fredericksburg,  to  minister  to  the  thousands  of  wounded  from  the 
destructive  battles  of  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania.  At 
Fredericksburg,  where  the  wThole  town  was  one  vast  hospital,  the 
surgeon  in  charge  entrusted  her  with  the  care  of  the  special  diet 
of  the  Second  Corps'  hospitals.  Unsupplied  with  kitchen  furni 
ture,  and  the  surgeon  being  entirely  at  a  loss  how  to  procure  any, 
her  woman's  wit  enabled  her  to  improvise  the  means  of  perform 
ing  her  duties.  She  remembered  that  Mrs.  Harris  had  left  at  the 
Lacy  House  in  Falmouth,  opposite  Fredericksburg,  the  year 
before,  an  old  stove  which  might  be  there  yet.  Procuring  an  am 
bulance,  she  crossed  the  river,  and  found  the  old  stove,  much  the 
worse  for  wear,  and  some  kettles  and  other  utensils,  all  of  which 
were  carefully  transported  to  the  other  side,  and  after  diligent 
scouring,  the  whole  were  soon  in  such  a  condition  that  boiling, 
baking,  stewing  and  frying  could  proceed  simultaneously,  and 
during  her  stay  in  Fredericksburg,  the  old  stove  was  kept  con 
stantly  hot,  and  her  skilful  hands  were  employed  from  morning 
till  night  and  often  from  night  till  morning  again  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  food  and  delicacies  for  the  sick.  Nothing  but  her  iron 
constitution  enabled  her  to  endure  this  incessant  labor. 

From  Fredericksburg  she  went  over  land  to  White  House  and 
there,  aided  by  Miss  Cornelia  Hancock,  her  ministrations  to  the 
wounded  were  renewed.  Thence  soon  after  they  removed  to  City 
Point.  Here  for  months  she  labored  amid  such  suffering  and 
distress  that  the  angels  must  have  looked  down  in  pity  upon  the 
accumulated  human  woe  which  met  their  sympathizing  eyes. 
Brave,  noble-hearted  men  fell  by  hundreds  and  thousands,  and 
died  not  knowing  whether  their  sacrifices  would  be  sufficient  to 
save  their  country.  At  length  wearied  with  her  intense  and  pro 
tracted  labors,  Mrs.  Lee  found  herself  compelled  to  visit  home 
and  rest  for  a  time.  But  her  heart  was  in  the  work,  and  again 
she  returned  to  it,  and  was  in  charge  of  a  hospital  near  Petersburg 


488 

at  the  time  of  Lee's  surrender.  She  remained  in  the  hospitals 
of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  until  the  middle  of  May,  and  then 
returned  to  her  quiet  home,  participating  to  the  very  last  in  the 
closing  work  of  the  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon,  where  she 
had  commenced  her  labors  for  the  soldiers.  Other  ladies  may 
have  engaged  in  more  extended  enterprises,  may  have  had  charge 
of  larger  hospitals,  or  undertaken  more  comprehensive  and  far- 
reaching  plans  for  usefulness  to  the  soldier — but  in  untiring  devo 
tion  to  his  interests,  in  faithfully  performed,  though  often  irksome 
labor,  carried  forward  patiently  and  perseveringly  for  more  than 
four  years,  Mrs.  Lee  has  a  record  not  surpassed  in  the  history  of 
the  deeds  of  American  women. 


MISS    CORNELIA    M.   TOMPKINS. 


ISS  CORNELIA  M.  TOMPKINS,  of  Niagara  Falls, 
was  one  of  the  truly  heroic  spirits  evoked  by  the  Avar. 
Related  to  a  distinguished  family  of  the  same  name, 
educated,  accustomed  to  the  refinements  and  social  en 
joyments  of  a  Christian  home  she  left  all  to  become  a  hospital 
nurse,  and  to  aid  in  saving  the  lives  of  the  heroes  and  defenders 
of  her  native  land.  Recommended  by  her  friend,  the  late  Mar 
garet  Breckinridge,  of  whom  a  biographical  notice  is  given  in  this 
volume,  she  came  to  St.  Louis  in  the  summer  of  1863,  was  com 
missioned  as  a  nurse  by  Mr.  Yeatman,  arid  assigned  to  duty  at 
the  Benton  Barracks  Hospital,  under  the  superintendence  of  Miss 
Emily  E.  Parsons,  and  the  general  direction  of  Surgeon  Ira 
Russell.  In  this  service  she  was  one  of  the  faithful  band  of 
nurses,  who,  with  Miss  Parsons,  brought  the  system  of  nursing 
to  such  perfection  at  that  hospital. 

In  the  fall  of  that  year  she  was  transferred  to  the  hospital  ser 
vice  at  Memphis,  by  Mr.  Yeatman,  to  meet  the  great  demand  for 
nurses  there,  where  she  became  favorably  known  as  a  most  judi 
cious  and  skilful  nurse. 

In  the  spring  of  1864  she  returned  to  St.  Louis,  and  was  again 
assigned  to  duty  at  Benton  Barracks,  where  she  remained  till 
mid-summer,  when  having  been  from  home  a  year,  she  obtained 
a  furlough,  and  went  home  for  a  short  period  of  rest,  and  to  visit 
her  family. 

On  her  return  to  St.  Louis  she  was  assigned  to  duty  at  the 

62  489 


490  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

large  hospital  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  and  continued  there  till  the 
end  of  the  war,  doing  faithful  and  excellent  service,  and  receiving 
the  cordial  approbation  of  the  surgeons  in  charge,  and  the  "Western 
Sanitary  Commission,  as  well  as  the  gratitude  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers,  to  whom  she  was  a  devoted  friend  and  a  minis 
tering  angel  in  their  sorrows  and  distress. 

In  her  return  to  the  quiet  and  enjoyment  of  her  own  home, 
within  the  sound  of  the  great  cataract,  she  has  carried  with  her 
the  consciousness  of  having  rendered  a  most  useful  service  to  the 
patriotic  and  heroic  defenders  of  her  country,  in  their  time  of 
suffering  and  need,  the  approval  of  a  good  conscience  and  the 
smile  of  heaven  upon  her  noble  and  heroic  soul. 


MRS.    ANNA    C.    McMEENS. 


KS.  ANNA  C.  McMEENS,  of  Sandusky,  Ohio,  was 
born  in  Maryland,  but  removed  to  the  northern  part 
of  Ohio,  in  company  with  her  parents  when  quite 
young.  She  is  therefore  a  western  woman  in  her 
habits,  associations  and  feelings,  while  her  patriotism  and  phi 
lanthropy  are  not  bounded  by  sectional  lines.  Her  husband, 
Dr.  McMeens,  was  appointed  surgeon  to  an  Ohio  regiment,  which 
was  one  of  the  first  raised  when  Mr.  Lincoln  called  for  troops, 
after  the  firing  upon  Sumter.  In  the  line  of  his  duty  he  pro 
ceeded  to  Camp  Dennison,  where  he  had  for  some  time  principal 
charge  of  the  medical  department.  Mrs.  McMeens  resolved  to 
accompany  her  husband,  and  share  in  the  hardships  of  the  cam 
paign,  for  the  purpose  of  doing  good  where  she  could  find  it  to 
do.  She  was  therefore  one  of  the  first, — if  not  the  first  woman 
in  Ohio,  to  give  her  exclusive,  undivided  time  in  a  military  hos 
pital,  in  administering  to  the  necessities  of  the  soldiers.  When 
the  regiment  left  Camp  Dennison,  she  accompanied  it,  until  our 
forces  occupied  Nashville.  Dr.  McMeens  then  had  a  hospital 
placed  under  his  charge,  and  his  faithful  wife  assisted  as  nurse 
for  several  months,  contributing  greatly  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
nursing  department,  and  to  the  administration  of  consolation  and 
comfort  in  many  ways  to  our  sick  soldier  boys,  who  were  neces 
sarily  deprived  of  the  comforts  of  home.  Subsequently  at  the 
battle  of  Perryville,  Mrs.  McMeens'  husband  lost  his  life  from 
excessive  exertions  while  in  attention  to  the  sick  and  wounded. 

491 


492  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Being  deprived  of  her  natural  protector,  she  returned  to  her 
home  in  Sandusky,  which  was  made  desolate  by  an  additional 
sacrifice  to  the  demon  of  secession.  While  at  home,  not  content 
to  sit  idle  in  her  mourning  for  her  husband,  she  was  busily  occu 
pied  in  aiding  the  Sanitary  Commission  in  obtaining  supplies,  of 
which  she  so  well  knew  the  value  by  her  familiarity  with  the 
wants  of  the  soldiers  in  field,  camp  and  hospitals.  She  however 
very  soon  felt  it  her  duty  to  participate  more  actively  in  imme 
diate  attentions  upon  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  A  fine  field 
offered  itself  in  the  hospitals  at  Washington,  to  which  place  she 
went ;  and  remained  nearly  one  year  in  attention,  and  rendering 
assistance  daily  among  the  various  hospitals  of  the  Nation's  cap 
ital.  It  would  be  feeble  praise  to  say  that  her  duties  were  per 
formed  in  the  most  energetic  and  judicious  manner.  Few  women 
have  made  greater  sacrifices  in  the  war  than  the  subject  of  our 
sketch ;  none  have  been  made  from  a  purer  sense  of  duty,  or  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  magnitude  of  the  cause  in  which  we  have 
been  engaged. 

At  present  the  necessity  for  attention  to  soldiers  has  happily 
ceased,  and  we  find  her  busily  engaged  in  missionary  work  among 
the  sailors,  which  she  has  an  excellent  opportunity  of  performing 
while  at  her  beautiful  summer  home  on  the  island  of  Gibraltar, 
Lake  Erie. 


MRS. 


RUSHA    R.    SMALL. 


HIS  young  lady  was  one  of  the  martyrs  of  the  war. 
She  resided  in  Cascade,  Dubuque  County,  Iowa,  and 
just  previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  war  had 
buried  her  only  child,  a  sweet  little  girl  of  four  years. 
When  volunteers  were  called  for  from  Iowa,  her  husband,  Mr. 
J.  E.  Small,  folt  it  his  duty  to  take  up  arms  for  his  country,  and 
as  his  wife  had  no  home  ties  she  determined  to  go  with  him  and 


make  herself  useful  in  r^ 
regiment,  or  of  other  ref  -ac 
a  most  excellent  nurse,  .:.• 
energy  in   the   regimental 
wounded  from  Belmont,  D 
numerous  sick  soldiers  of  G 
of  mercy.     Her  constant 


for  the  sick  and  wounded  of  his 
:  the  same  division.     She  proved 
months  labored  with  untiring 
:ls,    and   to    hundreds   of  the 
}   and  Shiloh,  as  well  as  to  the 
army  she  was  an  angel 
devotion   had   considerably 
impaired  her  health  before  the  battle  of  Shiloh. 

At  this  battle  her  husband  was  badly  wounded  and  taken  pri 
soner,  but  was  retaken  by  the  Union  troops.  In  the  course  of 
the  battle,  the  tent  which  she  occupied  and  where  she  was  minis 
tering  to  the  wounded  came  within  range  of  the  enemy's  shells, 
and  she  with  her  wounded  husband  and  a  large  number  of  other 
wounded  soldiers,  were  obliged  to  fly  for  their  lives,  leaving  all 
their  goods  behind  them.  Previous  to  her  flight,  however,  she  had 
torn  up  all  her  spare  clothing  and  dresses  to  make  bandages  and 
compresses  and  pillows  for  the  wounded  soldiers.  She  found  her 
way  with  her  wounded  patients  to  one  of  the  hospitals  extempo- 

493 


494  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

rized  by  the  Cincinnati  ladies.  Her  husband  and  many  of  his 
comrades  of  the  Twelfth  Iowa  Regiment  were  among  this  com 
pany  of  wounded  men.  She  craved  admission  for  them  and 
remained  to  nurse  her  husband  and  the  others  for  several  weeks, 
but  when  her  husband  became  convalescent,  she  was  compelled 
to  take  to  her  bed;  her  fatigue  and  exposure,  acting  upon  a 
somewhat  frail  and  delicate  constitution  had  brought  on  galloping 
consumption.  She  soon  learned  from  her  physician  that  there 
was  no  hope  of  her  recovery,  and  then  the  desire  to  return  home 
and  die  in  her  mother's  arms  seemed  to  take  entire  possession  of 
her  soul.  Permission  was  obtained  for  her  to  go,  and  for  her 
husband  to  accompany  her,  and  when  she  was  removed  from  the 
boat  to  the  cars,  Mrs.  Dr.  Mendenhall  of  the  Cincinnati  Branch 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission  accompanied  her  to  the  cars,  and 
having  provided  for  her  comfortable  journey,  gave  her  a  parting 
kiss.  Mrs.  Small  was  deeply  affected  by  this  kindness  of  a 
stranger,  and  thanking  her  for  her  attention  to  herself  and  hus 
band,  expressed  the  hope  that  they  should  meet  in  a  better  world. 
A  lady,  who  evidently  had  little  sympathy  with  the  war  or  with 
those  who  sought  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  soldiers,  stepped 
up  and  said  to  Mrs.  Small;  "You  did  very  wrong  to  go  and 
expose  yourself  as  you  have  done  when  you  were  so  young  and 
frail."  "No!"  replied  the  dying  woman,  "I  feel  that  I  have 
done  right,  I  think  I  have  been  the  means  of  saving  some  lives, 
and  that  of  my  dear  husband  among  the  rest;  and  these  I  con 
sider  of  far  more  value  than  mine,  for  now  they  can  go  and  help 
our  country  in  its  hour  of  need." 

Mrs.  Small  lived  to  reach  home,  but  died  a  few  days  after  her 
arrival.  She  requested  that  her  dead  body  might  be  wrapped  in 
the  national  flag,  for  next  to  her  husband  and  her  God,  she  loved 
the  country  which  it  represented,  best.  She  was  buried  with 
military  honors,  a  considerable  number  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
Twelfth  Iowa  who  were  home  on  furlough,  taking  part  in  the 
sad  procession. 


MRS.    S.    A.    MARTHA   CANFIELD. 


HIS  lady  was  the  wife  of  Colonel  Herman  Canfield,  of 
the  Seventy-first  Ohio  Regiment.  She  accompanied 
her  husband  to  the  field,  and  devoted  herself  to  the 
care  and  succor  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  until 
the  battle  of  Shiloh,  where  her  husband  was  mortally  wounded, 
and  survived  but  a  few  hours.  She  returned  home  with  his  body 
and  remained  for  a  short  time,  but  feeling  that  it  was  in  her 
power  to  do  something  for  the  cause  to  which  her  husband  ha.d 
given  his  life,  she  returned  to  the  Army  of  the  Mississippi  and 
became  attached  to  the  Sixteenth  Army  Corps,  and  spent  most 
of  her  time  in  the  hospitals  of  Memphis  and  its  vicinity.  But 
though  she  accomplished  great  good  for  the  soldiers,  she  took  a 
deep  interest  also  in  the  orphans  of  the  freedmen  in  that  region, 
and  by  her  extensive  acquaintance  and  influence  with  the  mili 
tary  authorities,  she  succeeded  in  establishing  and  putting  upon  a 
satisfactory  basis,  the  Colored  Orphan  Asylum  in  Memphis. 
She  devoted  her  \vhole  time  until  the  close  of  the  war  to  these 
two  objects;  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers  in  the  hospitals  and  the 
perfecting  of  the  Orphan  Asylum,  and  not  only  gave  her  time 
but  very  largely  also  of  her  property  to  the  furthering  of  these 
objects.  The  army  officers  of  that  large  and  efficient  army  corps 
bear  ample  testimony  to  her  great  usefulness  and  devotion. 

495 


MRS.  E.  THOMAS,  AND  MISS  MORRIS. 


HESE  two  ladies,  sisters,  volunteered  as  unpaid  nurses 
for  the  War,  from  Cincinnati.  They  commenced  their 
duties  at  the  first  opening  of  the  Hospitals,  and  re 
mained  faithful  to  their  calling,  until  the  hospitals  were 
closed,  after  the  termination  of  the  war.  In  cold  or  heat,  under 
all  circumstances  of  privation,  and  often  when  all  the  other 
nurses  were  stricken  down  with  illness,  they  never  faltered  in 
their  work,  and,  although  not  wealthy,  gave  freely  of  their  own 
means  to  secure  any  needed  comfort  for  the  soldiers.  Mrs.  Men- 
denhall,  of  Cincinnati,  who  knew  their  abundant  labors,  speaks 
of  them  PS  unsurpassed  in  the  extent  and  continuousness  of  their 
sacrifices. 

496 


MRS.    SHEPARD    WELLS. 


HIS  lady,  the  wife  of  Rev.  Shepard  Wells,  was,  with 
her  husband,  driven  from  East  Tennessee  by  the  rebel 
lion,  because  of  their  loyalty  to  the  Union.  They  found 
their  way  to  St.  Louis  at  an  early  period  of  the  War, 
where  he  entered  into  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission  for 
the  Union  soldiers,  and  she  became  a  member  of  the  Ladies' 
Union  Aid  Society,  of  St.  Louis,  and  gave  herself  wholly  to 
sanitary  labors  for  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  Hospitals  of  that 
city,  acting  also  as  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Society,  and  as 
its  agent  in  many  of  its  works  of  benevolence,  superintending  at 
one  time  the  Special  Diet  Kitchen,  established  by  the  Society  at 
Benton  Barracks,  and  doing  an  amount  of  work  which  few  wo 
men  could  endure,  animated  and  sustained  by  a  genuine  love  of 
doing  good,  by  noble  and  Christian  purposes,  and  by  true  patri 
otism  and  philanthropy. 

The  incidents  of  the  persecutions  endured  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Wells,  in  East  Tennessee,  and  of  her  life  and  labors  among  the 
sick  and  wounded  of  the  Union  army,  would  add  very  much  to 
the  interest  of  this  brief  notice,  but  the  particulars  are  not  suffi 
ciently  familiar  to  the  writer  to  be  narrated  by  him,  and  he  can 
only  record  the  impressions  he  received  of  her  remarkable  faith 
fulness  and  efficiency,  and  her  high  Christian  motives,  in  the  la 
bors  she  performed  in  connection  with  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid 
Society,  of  St.  Louis, — that  noble  Society  of  heroic  women  who, 
during  the  whole  war,  performed  an  amount  of  sanitary,  hospital 

63  49T 


498  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  \VAK. 

and  philanthropic  work  for  the  soldiers,  the  refugees  and  the 
freedmen,  second  only  to  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  itself, 
of  which  it  was  a  most  faithful  ally  and  co-worker. 

United  with  an  earnest  Christian  faith,  Mrs.  Wells  possessed  a 
kind  and  generous  sympathy  with  suffering,  and  a  patriotic  ardor 
for  the  welfare  of  the  Union  soldiers,  so  that  she  was  never  more 
in  her  element  than  when  laboring  for  the  poor  refugees,  for  the 
families  of  those  brave  men  who  left  their  all  to  fight  for  their 
country,  for  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  hospitals,  and  for  the 
freedmen  and  their  families.  The  labors  she  performed  extended 
to  all  these  objects  of  sympathy  and  charity,  and,  from  the  be 
ginning  to  the  end  of  her  service,  she  never  seemed  weary  in 
well-doing ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  when  her  work  on 
earth  is  finished,  and  she  passes  onward  to  the  heavenly  life,  she 
will  hear  the  approving  voice  of  her  Saviour,  saying,  "  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


MRS.    E.    C.   WITHERELL. 


N  the  month  of  December,  1861,  on  a  visit  made  by 
the  writer  to  the  Fourth  Street  Hospital,  in  St.  Louis, 
he  was  particularly  impressed  with  the  great  devotion 
of  one  of  the  female  nurses  to  her  sick  patients.  At 
the  conclusion  of  a  religious  service  held  there,  as  he  passed 
through  the  wards  to  call  on  those  who  had  been  too  ill  to  attend 
worship,  he  found  her  seated  by  the  bed-side  of  a  sick  soldier, 
suffering  from  pneumonia,  on  whose  pale,  thin  face  the  marks  of 
approaching  dissolution  were  plainly  visible.  She  held  in  her 
hand  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  from  which  she  had  been 
reading  to  him,  in  a  cheerful  and  hopeful  manner,  and  a  little 
book  of  prayers,  hymns  and  songs  from  which  she  had  been  sing 
ing,  "  There  is  rest  for  the  weary/7  and  "  The  Shining  Shore." 
The  soldier's  bed  was  neatly  made ;  his  special  diet  had  been 
given ;  his  head  rested  easily  on  his  pillow ;  and  his  countenance 
beamed  with  a  sweet  and  pleasant  smile.  It  was  evident  the 
patient  enjoyed  the  kind  attentions,  the  conversation,  the  reading 
and  singing  of  his  faithful  nurse.  The  lady  who  sat  by  his  bed 
side  was  of  middle  age,  having  a  countenance  expressive  of  good 
ness,  benevolence,  purity  of  motive,  intelligence  and  affection. 
It  was  plain  that  she  regarded  her  patient  with  a  tender  care,  and 
that  her  influence  calmed  and  soothed  his  spirit.  Her  name  was 
Mrs.  E.  C.  Witherell,  and  the  sick  soldier  was  a  mere  boy,  who 
had*  shouldered  his  musket  to  fight  for  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
and  had  contracted  his  fatal  disease  in  the  marches  and  the 

499 


500 

exposure  of  the  army  in  Missouri,  and  was  now  about  to  die 
away  from  friends  and  home.  The  interest  felt  by  Mrs.  With- 
erell  in  this  soldier  boy,  was  motherly,  full  of  affection  and  sym 
pathy,  and  creditable  to  her  noble  and  generous  heart.  As  I 
drew  near  and  introduced  myself  as  a  chaplain,  she  welcomed 
me,  introduced  me  to  the  patient,  and  we  sat  down  and  conversed 
together ;  the  young  man  was  in  a  state  of  peaceful  resignation  ; 
was  willing  to  die  for  his  country ;  and  only  regretted  that  he 
could  not  see  his  mother  and  sisters  again  ;  but  he  said  that  Mrs. 
AVitherell  had  been  as  a  mother  to  him,  and  if  he  could  have 
hold  of  her  hand  he  should  not  be  afraid  to  die.  He  even  hoped 
that  with  her  kind  care  and  nursing  he  might  get  well.  Mrs-. 
"Witherell  and  myself  then  sang  the  "  Shining  Shore ;"  a  brief 
prayer  of  hope  and  trust  was  offered ;  the  other  patients  in  the 
room  seemed  equally  well  cared  for,  and  interested  in  all  that  was 
said  and  done ;  and  I  passed  on  to  another  ward,  and  never  saw 
either  the  nurse  or  patient  again.  But  I  learned  that  the  soldier 
died ;  and  that  Mrs.  Witherell  continued  in  the  service,  until  she 
also  died,  a  martyr  to  her  heroic  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  soldiers,  for  whom  she  laid  down  her  life,  that  they 
might  live  to  fight  the  battles  of  their  country. 

The  only  facts  that  I  have  been  able  to  learn  about  this  noble 
lady,  were  that  at  one  time  she  resided  in  Louisville,  and  was 
greatly  esteemed  by  her  pastor,  Rev.  John  H.  Heywood,  of  the 
Unitarian  Church ;  that  she  chose  this  work  of  the  hospitals  from 
the  highest  motives  of  religious  patriotism  and  love  of  humanity ; 
that  after  serving  several  months  in  the  Fourth  Street  Hospital, 
at  St.  Louis,  she  was  assigned  to  the  hospital  steamer,  "  Empress," 
in  the  spring  of  1862,  as  matron,  or  head  nurse;  that  she  contin 
ued  on  this  boat  during  the  next  few  months,  while  so  many  sick 
and  wounded  were  brought  from  Pittsburg  Landing,  after  the 
battle  of  Shiloh,  and  from  other  battle-fields  along  the  rivers,  to 
the  hospitals  at  Mound  City  and  St.  Louis ;  that  she  was  always 
constant,  faithful  and  never  weary  of  doing  good ;  and  that  at 


MRS.  E.  C.  WITHERELL.  501 

last,  from  her  being  so  much  in  the  infected  atmosphere  of  the 
sick  and  wounded,  she  became  the  victim  of  a  fever,  and  died  on 
the  10th  of  July,  1862. 

On  the  occurrence  of  the  sad  event,  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission,  who  had  known  and  appreciated  her  services,  and 
from  whom  she  held  her  commission,  passed  a  series  of  resolu 
tions,  as  a  tribute  to  her  worth,  and  her  blessed  memory,  in 
which  she  was  described  as  one  who  was  "gentle  and  unobtru 
sive,  with  a  heart  warm  with  sympathy,  and  unshrinking  in  the 
discharge  of  duty,  energetic,  untiring,  ready  to  answer  every  call, 
and  unwilling  to  spare  herself  where  she  could  alleviate  suffering, 
or  minister  to  the  comfort  of  others,"  as  "  not  a  whit  behind  the 
bravest  hero  on  the  battle-field ;"  and  as  worthy  to  be  held  "  in 
everlasting  remembrance." 


MISS    PHEBE    ALLEN. 


HIS  noble  woman,  who  laid  down  her  life  in  the  cause 
of  her  country ,  was  a  teacher  in  Washington,  Iowa,  and 
left  her  school  to  enter  the  service  as  a  hospital  nurse. 
In  the  summer  of  1863  she  was  commissioned  by  Mr. 
Yeatman,  at  St.  Louis,  and  assigned  to  duty  in  the  large  hospital 
at  Benton  Barracks,  where  she  belonged  to  the  corps  of  women 
nurses,  under  the  superintendence  of  Miss  Emily  E.  Parsons,  and 
under  the  general  direction  of  Surgeon  Ira  Russell. 

In  the  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  a  hospital  nurse  she  was  very 
conscientious,  faithful  and  devoted;  won  the  respect  arid  confi 
dence  of  all  who  knew  her,  and  is  most  pleasantly  remembered 
by  her  associates  and  superior  officers. 

In  the  autumn  of  1863  she  went  home  on  a  furlough,  was 
recalled  by  a  letter  from  Miss  Parsons;  returned  to  duty,  and 
continued  in  the  service  till  the  summer  of  1864,  when  she  was 
taken  ill  of  malarious  fever  and  died  at  Benton  Barracks  in  the 
very  scene  of  her  patriotic  and  Christian  labors,  leaving  a  precious 
memory  of  her  faithfulness  and  truly  noble  spirit  to  her  friends 
and  the  world. 

502 


MRS.    EDWIN    GREBLE. 


MONG  the  ardently  loyal  women  of  Philadelphia,  by 
whom  such  great  and  untiring  labors  for  the  soldiers 
were  performed,  few  did  better  service  in  a  quiet  and 
unostentatious  manner  than  Mrs.  Greble.  Indeed  so 
very  quietly  did  she  work  that  she  almost  fulfilled  the  Scripture 
injunction  of  secrecy  as  to  good  deeds. 

The  maiden  name  of  Mrs.  Greble  was  Susan  Virginia  Major. 
She  was  born  in  Chester  County,  Pennsylvania,  being  descended 
on  the  mother's  side  from  a  family  of  Quakers  who  were  devoted 
to  their  country  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution  with  a  zeal  so 
active  and  outspoken  as  to  cause  them  to  lose  their  membership 
in  the  Society  of  Friends.  Fighting  Quakers  there  have  been  in 
both  great  American  wars,  men  whose  principles  of  peace,  though 
not  easily  shaken,  were  less  firm  than  their  patriotism,  and  their 
traits  have  in  many  instances  been  emulated  in  the  female  mem 
bers  of  their  families.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  case  with 
Mrs.  Greble. 

Her  eldest  son,  John,  she  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  country. 
He  entered  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point  in  1850,  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  graduating  honorably,  and  continuing  in  the  ser 
vice  until  June,  1861,  when  he  fell  at  the  disastrous  battle  of 
Great  Bethel,  one  of  the  earliest  martyrs  of  liberty  in  the  rebel 
lion.  Another  son,  and  the  only  one  remaining  after  the  death 
of  the  lamented  Lieutenant  Greble,  when  but  eighteen  years  of 
age,  enlisted,  served  faithfully,  and  nearly  lost  his  life  by  typhoid 

503 


504  WOMAN'S  A\TORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

fever.  A  son-in-law.  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Ninetieth  Penn 
sylvania  Volunteers,  and  a  brave  soldier,  was  for  many  months 
a  prisoner  of  war,  and  experienced  the  horrors  of  three  different 
Southern  prisons.  Thus,  by  inheritance,  patriotic,  and  by  per 
sonal  suffering  and  loss  keenly  aroused  to  sympathy  with  her 
country's  brave  defenders,  Mrs.  Greble  from  the  first  devoted 
herself  earnestly  and  untiringly  to  every  work  of  kindness  and 
aid  which  suggested  itself.  Blessed  with  abundant  means,  she 
used  them  in  the  most  liberal  manner  in  procuring  comforts  for 
the  sick  and  wounded  in  hospitals. 

There  was  ample  scope  for  such  labors  among  the  numerous 
hospitals  of  Philadelphia.  Now  it  was  blankets  she  sent  to  the 
hospital  where  they  were  most  needed.  Again  a  piece  of  sheet 
ing  already  hemmed  and  washed.  Almost  daily  in  the  season  of 
fruit  she  drove  to  the  hospitals  with  bushel  baskets  filled  with 
the  choicest  the  market  afforded,  to  tempt  the  fever-parched  lips, 
and  refresh  the  languishing  sufferers.  Weekly  she  made  gar 
ments  for  the  soldiers.  Leisure  moments  she  employed  in  knit 
ting  scores  of  stockings.  On  holidays  her  contributions  of  poultry, 
fruit,  and  pies,  went  far  toAvard  making  up  the  feasts  offered  by 
the  like-minded,  to  the  convalescents  in  the  various  institutions, 
or  to  soldiers  on  their  way  to  or  from  the  seat  of  war. 

It  was  in  this  mode  that  Mrs.  Greble  served  her  country, 
amply  and  freely,  but  so  quietly  as  to  attract  little  notice.  She 
withheld  nothing  that  was  in  her  power  to  bestow,  giving  even 
of  her  most  precious  treasures,  her  children,  and  continuing  her 
labors  unabated  to  the  close  of  the  war. 


MRS.    ISABELLA    FOGG. 


AINE  has  given  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  many  noble 
heroes,  brave  spirits  who  have  perilled  life  and  health 
to  put  down  the  rebellion,  and  not  a  few  equally  brave 
and  noble-hearted  women,  who  in  the  ministrations  of 
mercy  have  laid  on  the  altar  of  patriotism  their  personal  services, 
their  ease  and  comfort,  their  health  and  some  of  them  even  life 
itself  to  bring  healing  and  comfort  to  the  defenders  of  their  coun 
try.  Among  these,  few,  none  perhaps  save  those  who  have  laid 
down  their  lives  in  the  service,  are  more  Avorthy  of  honor  than 
Mrs.  Fogg. 

The  call  for  seventy-five  thousand  men  to  drive  back  the  inva 
ders  and  save  the  National  Capital,  met  with  no  more  hearty  or 
patriotic  responses  than  those  that  came  from  the  extreme  north 
eastern  border  of  our  Union,  "away  towards  the  sun-rising." 
Calais,  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  Maine,  raised  its  quota  and 
more,  upon  the  instant,  and  sent  them  forward  promptly.  The 
hearts  of  its  women,  too  were  stirred,  and  each  was  anxious  to  do 
something  for  the  soldier.  Mrs.  Fogg  felt  that  she  was  called  to 
leave  her  home  and  minister  in  some  way,  she  hardly  knew  how, 
to  the  comfort  of  those  who  were  to  fight  the  nation's  battles.  At 
that  time,  however,  home  duties  were  so  pressing  that,  most  reluc 
tantly,  she  was  compelled  to  give  up  for  the  time  the  purpose. 
Three  months  later  came  the  seeming  disaster,  the  real  blessing 
in  disguise,  of  Bull  Run,  and  again  wras  her  heart  moved,  this 
time  to  more  definite  action,  and  a  more  determined  purpose. 

64  505 


506 

Her  son,  a  mere  boy,  had  left  school  and  enlisted  to  lit  Ip  fill  the 
ranks  from  his  native  State,  and  she  was  ready  now  to  go  also. 
Applying  to  the  patriotic  governor  of  Maine  and  to  the  surgeon- 
general  of  the  State  for  permission  to  serve  the  State,  without 
compensation,  as  its  agent  for  distributing  supplies  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers  of  Maine,  she  was  encouraged  by  them  and 
immediately  commenced  the  work  of  collecting  hospital  stores  for 
her  mission.  In  September,  1861,  she  in  company  with  Mrs. 
Ruth  S.  Mayhew,  went  out  with  one  of  the  State  regiments,  and 
caring  for  its  sick,  accompanied  it  to  Annapolis.  The  regiment 
was  ordered,  late  in  the  autumn,  to  join  General  T.  W.  Sherman's 
expedition  to  Port  Royal,  and  Mrs.  Fogg  was  desirous  of  accom 
panying  it,  but  finding  this  impracticable,  she  turned  her  attention 
to  the  hospital  at  Annapolis,  in  which  the  spotted  typhus  fevei 
had  broken  out  and  was  raging  writh  fearful  malignity.  The  dis 
ease  was  exceedingly  contagious,  and  there  was  great  difficulty  in 
finding  nurses  who  were  willing  to  risk  the  contagion.  With  her 
high  sense  of  duty,  Mrs.  Fogg  felt  that  here  was  the  place  for  her, 
and  in  company  with  Mrs.  Mayhew,  another  noble  daughter  of 
Maine,  she  volunteered  for  service  in  this  hospital.  For  more 
than  three  months  did  these  heroic  women  remain  at  their  post, 
on  duty  every  day  and  often  through  the  night  for  week  after 
week,  regardless  of  the  infectious  character  of  the  disease,  and 
only  anxious  to  benefit  the  poor  fever-stricken  sufferers.  The 
epidemic  having  subsided,  Mrs.  Fogg  placed  herself  under  the 
direction  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  took  part  in  the  spring 
of  1862,  in  that  Hospital  Transport  Service  which  we  have  else 
where  so  fully  described.  The  month  of  June  was  passed  by  her 
at  the  front,  at  Savage's  Station,  with  occasional  visits  to  the 
brigade  hospitals,  and  to  the  regimental  hospitals  of  the  most 
advanced  posts.  She  remained  at  her  post  at  Savage's  Station, 
until  the  last  moment,  ministering  to  the  wounded  until  the  last 
load  had  been  dispatched,  and  then  retreating  with  the  army,  over 
land  to  Harrison's  Landing.  Here,  under  the  orders  of  Dr.  Let- 


MRS.  ISABELLA   FOGG.  507 

terman,  the  medical  director,  she  took  special  charge  of  the  diet 
of  the  amputation  cases;  and  subsequently  distributed  the  much 
needed  supplies  furnished  by  the  Sanitary  Commission  to  the  sol 
diers  in  their  lines. 

When  the  camps  at  Harrison's  Landing  were  broken  up,  and 
the  army  tran  ^ferred  to  the  Potomac,  she  accompanied  a  ship  load 
of  the  wounded  in  the  S.  R.  Spaulding,  to  Philadelphia,  saw  them 
safely  removed  to  the  general  hospital,  and  then  returned  to 
Maine,  for  a  brief  period  of  rest,  having  been  absent  from  home 
about  a  year.  Her  rest  consisted  mainly  in  appeals  for  further 
and  larger  supplies  of  hospital  and  sanitary  stores  for  the  wounded 
men  of  Maine,  who  in  the  battles  of  Pope's  campaign,  and  Antie- 
tam  had  been  wounded  by  hundreds.  She  was  successful,  and 
early  in  October  returned  to  Washington  and  the  hospitals  of 
northern  Maryland,  where  she  proved  an  angel  of  mercy  to  the 
suffering.  When  McClellan's  army  crossed  the  Potomac,  she  fol 
lowed,  and  early  in  December,  1862,  was  again  at  the  front,  where 
she  was  on  the  13th,  a  sad  spectator  of  the  fatal  disaster  of 
Fredericksburg.  The  Maine  Camp  Hospital  Association  had 
been  formed  the  preceding  summer,  and  Mrs.  J.  S.  Eaton, 
one  of  its  managers,  had  accompanied  Mrs.  Fogg  to  the  front. 
During  the  sad  weeks  that  followed  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg, 
these  devoted  ladies  labored  with  untiring  assiduity  in  the  hos 
pitals,  and  dispensed  their  supplies  of  food  and  clothing,  not  only 
to  the  Maine  boys,  but  to  others  who  were  in  need. 

When  the  battles  of  Chancellorsville  were  fought  in  the  first 
days  of  May,  1863,  Mrs.  Fogg  and  Mrs.  Eaton  spent  almost  a 
week  of  incessant  labor,  much  of  the  time  day  and  night,  in  the 
temporary  hospitals  near  United  States  Ford,  their  labors  being 
shared  for  one  or  two  days  by  Mrs.  Husband,  in  dressing  wounds, 
and  attending  to  the  poor  fellows  who  had  suffered  amputation, 
and  furnishing  cordials  and  food  to  the  wounded  who  were  re 
treating  from  the  field,  pursued  by  the  enemy.  One  of  these 
Hospitals  in  which  they  had  been  thus  laboring  till  they  were 


r>08  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

completely  exhausted,  was  shelled  by  the  enemy  while  they  were 
in  it,  and  while  it  was  filled  with  the  wounded.  The  attack  was 
of  short  duration,  for  the  battery  which  had  shelled  them  was 
soon  silenced,  but  one  of  the  wounded  soldiers  was  killed  by  a 
shell. 

In  works  like  these,  in  the  care  of  the  wounded  who  were  sent 
in  by  flag  of  truce,  and  the  distribution  to  the  needy  of  the  stores 
received  from  Maine,  the  days  passed  quickly,  till  the  invasion 
of  Pennsylvania  by  General  Lee,  which  culminated  in  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg.  Mrs.  Fogg  pushed  forward  and  reached  the  bat 
tle-field  the  day  after  the  final  battle,  but  she  could  not  obtain 
transportation  for  her  stores  at  that  time,  and  was  obliged  to  col 
lect  what  she  could  from  the  farmers  in  the  vicinity,  and  use  what 
was  put  into  her  hands  for  distribution  by  others,  until  hers  could 
be  brought  up.  She  labored  with  her  usual  assiduity  and  pa 
tience  among  this  great  mass  of  wounded  and  dying  men,  for 
nearly  two  weeks,  and  then,  abundant  helpers*  having  arrived,  she 
returned  to  the  front,  and  was  writh  the  Army  as  a  voluntary 
Special  Relief  agent,  through  all  its  changes  of  position  on  and 
about  the  Rapidan,  at  the  affair  of  Mine  Run,  the  retreat  and 
pursuit  to  Bristow  Station,  and  the  other  movements  prior  to 
General  Grant's  assumption  of  the  chief  command.  In  the  win 
ter  of  1864,  she  made  a  short  visit  home,  and  the  Legislature 
voted  an  appropriation  of  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  be 
placed  at  her  disposal,  to  be  expended  at  her  discretion  for  the 
comfort  and  succor  of  Maine  soldiers. 

At  the  opening  of  the  great  Campaign  of  May,  1864,  she  hast 
ened  to  Belle  Plain  and  Fredericksburg,  and  there,  in  company 
with  scores  of  other  faithful  and  earnest  workers,  toiled  night 
and  day  to  relieve  so  far  as  possible  the  indescribable  suffering 
which  filled  that  desolated  city.  After  two  or  three  weeks,  she 
went  forward  to  Port  Royal,  to  White  House,  and  finally  to  City 
Point,  where,  in  connection  Avith  Mrs.  Eaton  of  the  Maine  Camp 
Hospital  Association,  she  succeeded  in  bringing  one  of  the  Hos- 


MKS.  ISABELLA    FOGG.  509 

pitals  up  to  the  highest  point  of  efficiency.  This  accomplished, 
she  returned  to  Maine,  and  was  engaged  in  stimulating  the  wo 
men  of  her  State  to  more  effective  labors,  wThen  she  received  the 
intelligence  that  her  son  who  had  been  in  the  Army  of  the  She- 
nandoah,  had  been  mortally  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Cedar-Run. 

"With  all  a  mother's  anxieties  aroused,  she  abandoned  her  work 
in  Maine,  and  hastened  to  Martinsburg,  Virginia,  to  ascertain 
what  was  really  her  son's  fate.  Here  she  met  a  friend,  one  of  the 
delegates  of  the  Christian  Commission,  and  learned  from  him, 
that  her  son  had  indeed  been  badly  wounded,  and  had  been 
obliged  to  undergo  the  amputation  of  one  leg,  but  had  borne  the 
operation  well,  and  after  a  few  days  had  been  transferred  to  a 
Baltimore  Hospital.  To  that  city  she  hastened,  and  greatly  to 
her  joy,  found  him  doing  well.  Anxiety  and  over  exertion  soon 
prostrated  her  own  health,  and  she  was  laid  upon  a  sick  bed  for 
a  month  or  more. 

In  November,  her  health  being  measurably  restored,  she  re 
turned  to  Washington,  and  asked  to  be  assigned  to  duty  by  the 
Christian  Commission.  She  was  directed  to  report  to  Mrs.  Annie 
Wittenmeyer,  who  was  the  Commission's  Agent  for  the  establish 
ment  of  Special  Diet  Kitchens  in  the  Hospitals.  Mrs.  Witten 
meyer  assigned  her  a  position  in  charge  of  the  Special  Diet 
Kitchen,  on  one  of  the  large  hospital-boats  plying  between  Louis 
ville  and  Nashville.  While  on  duty  on  board  this  boat  in  January, 
1865,  she  fell  through  one  of  the  hatchways,  and  received  in 
juries  which  will  probably  disable  her  for  life,  and  her  condition 
was  for  many  months  so  critical  as  not  to  permit  her  removal  to 
her  native  State.  It  would  seem  that  here  was  cause  for  repin 
ing,  had  she  been  of  a  querulous  disposition.  Herself  an  invalid 
for  life,  among  strangers,  her  only  son  permanently  crippled  from 
wounds  received  in  battle,  with  none  but  stranger  hands  to  min 
ister  to  her  necessities,  who  had  done  so  much  to  soothe  the  an 
guish  and  mitigate  the  sorrows  of  others,  there  was  but  little  to 
outward  appearance,  to  compensate  her  for  her  four  years  of  ar- 


510 

duous  toil  for  others,  and  her  present  condition  of  helplessness. 
Yet  we  are  told,  that  amid  all  these  depressing  circumstances, 
this  heroic  woman  was  full  of  joy,  that  she  had  been  permitted 
to  labor  so  long,  and  accomplish  so  much  for  her  country  and  its 
defenders,  and  that  peace  had  at  last  dawned  upon  the  nation. 
Even  pain  could  bring  no  cloud  over  her  brow,  no  gloom  to  her 
heart.  To  such  a  heroine,  the  nation  owes  higher  honors  than  it 
has  ever  bestowed  upon  the  victors  of  the  battle-field. 


MRS.    E.    E.   GEORGE. 


LD  age  is  generally  reckoned  as  sluggish,  infirm,  and 
not  easily  roused  to  deeds  of  active  patriotism  and 
earnest  endeavor.  The  aged  think  and  deliberate,  but 
are  slow  to  act.  Yet  in  this  glorious  work  of  American 
Women  during  the  late  war,  aged  women  were  found  ready  to 
volunteer  for  posts  of  arduous  labor,  from  which  even  those  in 
the  full  vigor  of  adult  womanhood  shrank.  We  shall  have  occa 
sion  to  notice  this  often  in  the  work  of  the  Volunteer  Refreshment 
Saloons,  the  Soldiers'  Homes,  etc.,  where  the  heavy  burdens  of  toil 
were  borne  oftenest  by  those  who  had  passed  the  limits  of  three 
score  years  and  ten. 

Another  and  a  noble  example  of  heroism  even  to  death  in  a 
lady  advanced  in  years,  is  found  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  E.  E.  George. 
The  Military  Agency  of  Indiana,  located  at  the  capital  of  the 
State,  became,  under  the  influence  and  promptings  of  the  patriotic 
and  able  Governor  Morton,  a  power  for  good  both  in  the  State 
and  in  the  National  armies.  Being  in  constant  communication 
with  every  part  of  the  field,  it  was  readily  and  promptly  informed 
of  suffering,  or  want  of  supplies  by  the  troops  of  the  State  at 
any  point,  and  at  once  provided  for  the  emergency.  The  supply 
of  women-nurses  for  camp,  field,  or  general  hospital  service,  was 
also  made  a  part  of  the  work  of  this  agency,  and  the  efficient 
State  Agent,  Mr.  Hannaman,  sent  into  the  service  two  hundred 
and  fifty  ladies,  who  were  distributed  in  the  hospitals  and  at  the 
front,  all  over  the  region  in  insurrection. 

511 


512 

One  of  these,  Mrs.  E.  E.  George,  of  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  first 
applied  to  Mr.  Hannaman  for  a  commission  in  January,  1863. 
She  brought  with  her  strong  recommendations,  but  her  age  was 
considered  by  the  agent  a  serious  objection.  -She  admitted  this, 
but  her  health  was  excellent,  and  she  possessed  more  vigor  than 
many  ladies  much  younger.  She  was,  besides,  an  accomplished 
and  skilful  nurse. 

She  was  sent  by  Mr.  Hannaman  to  Memphis  where  the  wounded 
from  the  unsuccessful  attack  on  Chickasaw  Bluffs, — and  the  suc 
cessful  but  bloody  assault  on  Arkansas  Post, — were  gathered,  and 
her  thorough  qualifications  for  her  position,  her  dignity  of  man 
ner  and  her  high  intelligence,  soon  gave  her  great  influence. 
During  the  whole  Yicksburg  campaign,  and  into  the  autumn  of 
1863,  she  remained  in  the  Memphis  hospitals,  working  inces 
santly.  After  a  short  visit  home,  in  September,  she  went  to 
Corinth  where  Sherman's  Fifteenth  Corps  were  stationed,  and 
remained  there  until  their  departure  for  Chattanooga.  She  then 
visited  Pulaski  and  assisted  in  opening  a  hospital  there,  Mrs. 
Porter  and  Mrs.  Bickerdyke  co-operating  with  her,  and  several 
times  she  visited  Indiana  and  procured  supplies  for  her  hospital. 
When  Sherman  commenced  his  forward  movement  toward  At 
lanta,  in  May,  1864,  Mrs.  George  and  her  friends,  Mrs.  Porter 
and  Mrs.  Bickerdyke,  accompanied  the  army,  and  during  the 
succession  of  severe  battles  of  that  campaign,  she  was  always  ready 
to  minister  to  the  wounded  soldiers  in  the  field.  When  Atlanta 
was  invested  in  the  latter  part  of  July,  1864,  she  took  charge  of 
the  Fifteenth  Army  Corps  Hospital  as  Matron,  and  in  the  battles 
which  terminated  in  the  surrender  of  Atlanta,  on  the  1st  of  Sep 
tember,  she  was  under  fire.  After  the  fall  of  Atlanta  she  re 
turned  home  to  rest  and  prepare  for  another  campaign.  She 
could  not  accompany  Sherman's  army  to  Savannah,  but  went  to 
Nashville,  where  during  and  after  Hood's  siege  of  that  city  she 
found  abundant  employment. 

Learning  that  Sherman's  army  was  at  Savannah,  she  set  out 


MRS.  E.  E.  GEORGE.  513 

for  that  city,  via  New  York,  intending  to  join  the  Fifteenth 
Corps,  to  which  she  had  become  strongly  attached;  but  through 
some  mistake,  she  was  not  provided  with  a  pass,  and  visiting 
Washington  to  obtain  one,  Miss  Dix  persuaded  her  to  change  her 
plans  and  go  to  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  which  had  just 
passed  into  Union  hands,  and  where  great  numbers  of  Union 
prisoners  were  accumulating.  She  had  but  just  reached  the  rlty 
when  eleven  thousand  prisoners,  just  released  from  Salisbury,  and 
in  the  worst  condition  of  starvation,  disease  and  wretchedness 
were  brought  in.  Mrs.  George,  though  supplied  with  but  scant 
provision  of  hospital  stores  or  conveniences,  gave  herself  most 
heartily  to  the  work  of  providing  for  those  poor  sufferers,  and 
soon  found  an  active  coadjutor  in  Mrs.  Harriet  F.  Hawley,  the 
wife  of  the  gallant  general  in  command  of  the  post.  Heroically 
and  incessantly  these  two  ladies  worked;  Mrs.  George  gave  her 
self  no  rest  day  or  night.  The  sight  of  such  intense  suffering 
led  her  to  such  over  exertion  that  her  strength,  impaired  by  her 
previous  labors,  gave  way,  and  she  sank  under  an  attack  of 
typhus,  then  prevailing  among  the  prisoners.  A  skilful  physician 
gave  her  the  most  careful  attention,  but  it  was  of  no  avail.  She 
died,  another  of  those  glorious  martyrs,  who  more  truly  than  the 
dying  heroes  of  the  battle-field  have  given  their  lives  for  their 
country.  To  such  patient  faithful  souls  there  awaits  in  the  "Bet 
ter  Land"  that  cordial  recognition  foreshadowed  by  the  poet: 

"  "While  valor's  haughty  champions  wait, 

Till  all  their  scars  be  shown, 
Love  walks  unchallenged  through  the  gate 

To  sit  beside  the  Throne." 
65 


MRS      CHARLOTTE    E.    McKAY. 


HIS  lady,  a  resident  of  Massachusetts,  had  early  in  the 
war  been  bereaved  of  her  husband  and  only  child,  not 
by  the  vicissitudes  of  the  battle-field  but  by  sickness  at 
home,  and  her  heart  worn  with  grief,  sought  relief, 
where  it  was  most  likely  to  find  it,  in  ministering  to  the  sufferings 
of  others. 

She  accepted  an  appointment  under  Miss  Dix  as  a  hospital 
nurse,  and  commenced  her  hospital  life  in  Frederick  City,  Mary 
land,  in  March,  1862,  where  she  was  entrusted  with  the  care  of 
a  large  number  of  wounded  from  the  first  battle  of  Winchester. 
Her  life  here  passed  without  much  of  special  interest,  till  Sep 
tember,  1862,  when  the  little  Maryland  city  was  filled  for  two  or 
three  days  with  Stonewall  Jackson's  Corps  on  their  way  to  South 
Mountain  and  Antietam.  The  rebels  took  possession  of  the  hos 
pital,  and  filled  it  for  the  time  with  their  sick  and  wounded  men. 
Resistance  was  useless,  and  Mrs.  McKay  treated  the  rebel  officers 
and  men  courteously,  and  did  what  she  could  for  the  sick;  her 
civility  and  kindness  were  recognized,  and  she  was  treated  with 
respect  by  all.  After  the  battle  of  Antietam,  Frederick  City  and 
its  hospitals  were  filled  with  the  wounded,  and  Mrs.  McKay's 
heart  and  hands  were  full — but  as  soon  as  the  wounded  became 
convalescent,  she  went  to  Washington  and  was  assigned  to 
duty  for  a  time  in  the  hospitals  of  the  Capital.  In  January,  she 
went  to  Falmouth  and  found  employment  as  a  nurse  in  the  Third 
Corps  Hospital.  Here  by  her  skill  and  tact  she  soon  effected  a 

514 


MRS.  CHARLOTTE    E.  McKAY.  515 

revolution,  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  the  poor  fellows  in  the  hos 
pital.  From  being  the  worst  it  became  the  best  of  the  corps  hos 
pitals  at  the  front.  General  Birney  and  his  excellent  wife, 
seconded  and  encouraged  all  her  efforts  for  its  improvement. 

The  battles  which  though  scattered  over  a  wide  extent  of  ter- 
ritoiy,  and  fought  at  different  times  and  by  different  portions  of 
the  contending  forces,  have  yet  been  known  under  the  generic 
name  of  Chancellorsville,  were  full  of  horrors  for  Mrs.  McKay. 
She  witnessed  the  bloody  but  successful  assault  on  Marye's 
Heights,  and  while  ministering  to  the  wounded  who  covered  all 
the  ground  in  front  of  the  fortified  position,  received  the  sad-, 
dening  intelligence  that  her  brother,  who  was  with  Hooker  at 
Chancellorsville,  had  been  instantly  killed  in  the  protracted  fight 
ing  there.  Other  of  her  friends  too  had  fallen,  but  crushing  the 
agony  of  her  own  loss  back  into  her  heart,  she  went  on  minister 
ing  to  the  wounded.  Six  weeks  later  she  was  in  Washington, 
awaiting  the  battle  between  Lee's  forces  and  Hooker's,  afterwards 
commanded  by  General  Meade.  When  the  intelligence  of  the 
three  days'  conflict  at  Gettysburg  came,  she  went  to  Baltimore, 
and  thence  by  such  conveyance  as  she  could  find,  to  Gettysburg, 
reaching  the  hospital  of  her  division,  five  miles  from  Gettysburg, 
on  the  7th  of  July.  Here  she  remained  for  nearly  two  months, 
laboring  zealously  for  the  welfare  of  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred 
wounded  men.  In  the  autumn  she  again  sought  the  hospital  of 
the  Third  Division,  Third  Corps,  at  the  front,  which  for  the  time 
was  at  Warrenton,  Virginia.  After  the  battle  of  Mine  Run,  she 
had  ample  employment  in  the  care  of  the  wounded;  and  later  in 
the  season  she  had  charge  of  one  of  the  hospitals  at  Brandy  Station. 
Like  the  other  ladies  who  were  connected  with  hospitals  at  this 
place,  she  was  compelled  to  retire  by  the  order  of  April  15th; 
but  like  them  she  returned  to  her  work  early  in  May,  at  Belle 
Plain,  Fredericksburg,  White  House,  and  City  Point,  where  she 
labored  with  great  assiduity  and  success.  The  changes  in  the 
army  organization  in  June,  1864,  removed  most  of  her  friends  in 


516 

the  old  third  corps,  and  Mrs.  McKay,  on  the  invitation  of  the 
surgeon  in  charge  of  the  cavalry  corps  hospital,  took  charge  of 
the  special  diet  of  that  hospital,  where  she  remained  for  nearly  a 
year,  finally  leaving  the  service  in  March,  1865,  and  remaining 
in  Virginia  in  the  care  and  instruction  of  the  freedmcn  till  late 
in  the  spring  of  1866.  The  officers  and  men  who  had  been  under 
her  care  in  the  Cavalry  Corps  Hospital,  presented  her  on  Christ 
mas  day,  1864,  with  an  elegant  gold  badge  and  chain,  with  a 
suitable  inscription,  as  a  testimonial  of  their  gratitude  for  her  ser 
vices.  She  had  previously  received  from  the  officers  of  the  Seven 
teenth  Maine  Volunteers,  whom  she  had  cared  for  after  the  battle 
of  Chancellorsville,  a  magnificent  Kearny  Cross,  with  its  motto 
and  an  inscription  indicating  by  whom  it  was  presented. 


MRS.    FANNY    L.    RICKETTS. 


RS.  EICKETTS  is  the  daughter  of  English  parents, 
though  born  at  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey.  She  is  the 
wife  of  Major-General  Ricketts,  United  States  Volun 
teers,  who  at  the  time  of  their  marriage  was  a  Captain 
in  the  First  Artillery,  in  the  United  States  Army,  and  with  whom 
she  went  immediately  after  their  union,  to  his  post  on  the  Rio 
Grande.  After  a  residence  of  more  than  three  years  on  the  fron 
tier,  the  First  Artillery  was  ordered  in  the  spring  of  1861,  to 
Fortress  Monroe,  and  her  husband  commenced  a  school  of  prac 
tice  in  artillery,  for  the  benefit  of  the  volunteer  artillerymen, 
who,  under  his  instruction,  became  expert  in  handling  the  guns. 
In  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  Captain  Ricketts  commanded 
a  battery  of  light  artillery,  and  was  severely,  and  it  was  supposed, 
mortally  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  The  heroic  wife  at  once 
applied  for  passes  to  go  to  him,  and  share  his  captivity,  and  if 
need  be  bring  away  his  dead  body.  General  Scott  granted  her 
such  passes  as  he  could  give ;  but  with  the  Rebels  she  found  more 
difficulty,  her  parole  being  demanded,  but  on  appeal  to  General 
J.  E.  Johnston,  she  was  supplied  with  a  pass  and  guide.  She 
found  her  husband  very  low,  and  suffering  from  inattention,  but 
his  case  was  not  quite  hopeless.  It  required  all  her  courage  to 
endure  the  hardships,  privations  and  cruelties  to  which  the  Union 
women  were,  even  then,  subject,  but  she  schooled  herself  to  endur 
ance,  and  while  caring  for  her  husband  during  the  long  weeks 
when  his  life  hung  upon  a  slender  thread,  she  became  also  a  min- 

517 


518 

ister  of  mercy  to  the  numerous  Union  prisoners,  who  had  not  a 
wife's  tender  care.  When  removed  to  Richmond,  Captain  Rick 
etts  was  still  in  great  peril,  and  under  the  discomforts  of  his  sit 
uation,  grew  rapidly  worse.  For  many  weeks  he  was  unconscious, 
and  his  death  seemed  inevitable.  At  length  four  months  after 
receiving  his  wound,  he  began  very  slowly  to  improve,  when 
intelligence  came  that  he  was  to  be  taken  as  one  of  the  hostages 
for  the  thirteen  privateersmen  imprisoned  in  New  York.  Mrs. 
Ricketts  went  at  once  to  Mrs.  Cooper,  the  wife  of  the  Confederate 
Adjutant-General,  and  used  such  arguments,  as  led  the  Confed 
erate  authorities  to  rescind  the  order,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned. 
He  was  exchanged  in  the  latter  part  of  December,  1861,  and 
having  partially  recovered  from  his  wounds,  was  commissioned 
Brigadier-General,  in  March,  1862,  and  assigned  to  the  command 
of  a  brigade  in  McDowell's  Corps,  at  Fredericksburg.  He  passed 
unscathed  through  Pope's  Campaign,  but  at  Antietam  was  again 
wounded,  though  not  so  severely  as  before,  and  after  two  or  three 
months'  confinement,  was  in  the  winter  of  1862-3,  in  Washington, 
as  President  of  a  Military  Commission. 

General  Ricketts  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Chancellorsville 
and  Gettysburg,  and  escaped  personal  injury,  but  his  wife  in 
gratitude  for  his  preservation,  ministered  to  the  wounded,  and  for 
months  continued  her  labors  of  love  among  them. 

In  Grant's  Campaign  in  1864,  General  Ricketts  distinguished 
himself  for  bravery  in  several  battles,  commanding  a  division ; 
and  at  the  battle  of  Monocacy,  though  he  could  not  defeat  the 
overwhelming  force  of  the  Rebels,  successfully  delayed  their 
advance  upon  Baltimore.  He  then  joined  the  Army  of  the 
Shenandoah,  and  in  the  battle  of  Middletown,  October  19th,  was 
again  seriously,  and  it  was  thought  mortally  wounded.  Again 
for  four  months  did  this  devoted  wife  watch  most  patiently  and 
tenderly  over  his  couch  of  pain,  and  again  was  her  tender  nurs 
ing  blessed  to  his  recovery.  In  the  closing  scenes  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  which  culminated  in  Lee's  surrender,  General 


MRS.  FANNY    L.  RICKETTS.  519 

Ricketts  was  once  more  in  the  field,  and  though  suffering  from 
his  wounds,  he  did  not  leave  his  command  till  by  the  capitula 
tion  of  the  Rebel  chief,  the  war  was  virtually  concluded.  The 
heroic  wife  remained  at  the  Union  headquarters,  watchful  lest  he 
for  whom  she  had  perilled  life  and  health  so  often,  should  again 
be  smitten  down,  but  she  was  mercifully  spared  this  added  sor 
row,  and  her  husband  was  permitted  to  retire  from  the  active 
ranks  of  the  army,  covered  with  scars  honorably  won. 


MRS.  JOHN   S.  PHELPS. 


T  the  commencement  of  the  War,  Mrs.  Phelps  was  re 
siding  in  her  pleasant  home  at  Springfield,  Missouri, 
her  husband  and  herself,  were  both  originally  from  New 
England,  but  years  of  residence  in  the  Southwest,  had 
caused  them  to  feel  a  strong  attachment  for  the  region  and  its  in 
stitutions.  They  were  both,  however,  intensely  loyal.  Mr. 
Phelps  was  a  member  of  Congress,  elected  as  a  Union  man,  and 
when  it  became  evident  that  the  South  would  resort  to  war,  he 
offered  his  services  to  the  General  Government,  raised  a  regiment 
and  went  into  the  field  under  the  heroic  Lyon.  After  the  battle 
of  Wilson's  Creek,  Mrs.  Phelps  succeeded  in  rescuing  the  body 
of  General  Lyon,  and  had  it  buried  where  it  was  within  her  con 
trol,  and  as  soon  as  possible  forwarded  it  to  his  friends  in  Con 
necticut.  Her  home  was  plundered  subsequently  by  the  Rebels, 
and  nearly  ruined.  At  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge,  Mrs.  Phelps 
accompanied  her  husband  to  the  field,  and  while  the  battle  was 
yet  raging,  she  assisted  in  the  care  of  the  wrounded,  tore  up  her 
own  garments  for  bandages,  dressed  their  wounds,  cooked  food, 
and  made  soup  and  broth  for  them,  with  her  own  hands,  remain 
ing  with  them  as  long  as  there  was  anything  she  could  do,  and 
giving  not  only  words  but  deeds  of  substantial  kindness  and 
sympathy. 

Col.    Phelps   was   subsequently  made  Military  Governor    of 

520 


MRS.  JOHN    S.  PHELPS.  521 

Arkansas,  and  in  the  many  bloody  battles  in  that  State,  she  was 
ready  to  help  in  every  way  in  her  power ;  and  in  her  visits  to 
the  East,  she  plead  the  cause  of  the  suffering  loyalists  of  Mis 
souri  and  Arkansas,  among  her  friends  with  great  earnestness 
and  success. 

66 


MRS.  JANE    R.  MUNSELL. 


ARYLAND,  though  strongly  claimed  by  the  Rebels 
as  their  territory  almost  throughout  the  War,  had  yet, 
many  loyal  men  and  women  in  its  country  villages  as 
well  as  in  its  larger  cities.  The  legend  of  Barbara 
Freitchie's  defiance  of  Stonewall  Jackson  and  his  hosts,  has  been 
immortalized  in  Whittier's  charming  verse,  and  the  equally  brave 
defiance  of  the  Rebels  by  Mrs.  Effie  Titlow,  of  Middletowii, 
Maryland,  who  wound  the  flag  about  her,  and  stood  in  the  bal 
cony  of  her  own  house,  looking  calmly  at  the  invading  troops, 
who  were  filled  with  wrath  at  her  fearlessness  deserves  a  like 
immortality.  Mrs.  Titlow  proved  after  the  subsequent  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  that  she  possessed  the  disposition  to  labor  for  the 
wounded  faithfully  and  indefatigably,  as  well  as  the  gallantry 
to  defy  their  enemies. 

Mrs.  Jane  R.  Munsell,  of  Sandy  Spring,  Maryland,  was  an 
other  of  these  Maryland  heroines,  but  her  patriotism  manifested 
itself  in  her  incessant  toils  for  the  sick  and  wounded  after  An- 
tietam  and  Gettysburg.  For  their  sake,  she  gave  up  all ;  her 
home  and  its  enjoyments,  her  little  property,  yea,  and  her  own 
life  also,  for  it  was  her  excessive  labor  for  the  wounded  soldiers 
which  exhausted  her  strength  and  terminated  her  life.  A  corres 
pondent  of  one  of  the  daily  papers  of  New  York  city,  who  knew 
her  well,  says  of  her :  "  A  truer,  kinder,  or  more  lovely  or  lov- 

522 


MRS.  JANE    R.  MUN8ELL.  523 

ing  woman  never  lived  than  she.  Her  name  is  a  household  word 
with  the  troops,  and  her  goodnesses  have  passed  into  proverbs  in 
the  camps  and  sick-rooms  and  hospitals.  She  died  a  victim  to 
her  own  kind-heartedness,  for  she  went  far  beyond  her  strength 
ill  her  blessed  ministrations." 


PART  III. 


LADIES  WHO  ORGANIZED  AID  SOCIETIES,  AND  SOLICITED,  RECEIVED 

AND  FORWARDED  SUPPLIES  TO  THE  HOSPITALS,  DEVOTING 

THEIR  WHOLE  TIME  TO  THE  WORK,  ETC.,  ETC. 


WOMAN'S    CENTRAL    ASSOCIATION 
OF    RELIEF. 


HEN  President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation,  a 
quick  thrill  shot  through  the  heart  of  every  mother  in 
New  York.  The  Seventh  Regiment  left  at  once  for 
the  defense  of  Washington,  and  the  women  met  at 
once  in  parlors  and  vestries.  Perhaps  nothing  less  than  the 
maternal  instinct  could  have  forecast  the  terrible  future  so 
quickly.  From  the  parlors  of  the  Drs.  Blackwell,  and  from  Dr. 
Bellows'  vestry,  came  the  first  call  for  a  public  meeting.  On  the 
29th  of  April,  1861,  between  three  and  four  thousand  women 
met  at  the  Cooper  Union,  David  Dudley  Field  in  the  chair,  and 
eminent  men  as  speakers. 

The  object  was  to  consecrate  scattered  efforts  by  a  large  and 
formal  organization.  Hence  the  "  Woman's  Central  Association 
of  Relief,"  the  germ  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Dr.  Bellows, 
and  Dr.  E.  Harris,  left  for  Washington  as  delegates  to  establish 
those  relations  with  the  Government,  so  necessary  for  harmony 
and  usefulness.  The  board  of  the  Woman's  Central,  after  many 
changes,  consisted  of, 

VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.,  President, 
HENRY  W.  BELLOWS,  D.  D.,  Vice  President, 
GEORGE  F.  ALLEN,  Esq.,  Secretary, 
HOWARD  POTTER,  Esq.,  Treasurer. 

527 


528 

EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE. 

H.W. Bellows, !>.!>.,  Chairman.  Valentine  Mott,  M.  D. 
Mrs.  G.  L.  Schuyler.*  Mrs.  T.  d'Oremieulx. 

Miss  Ellen  Collins.  W.  H.  Draper,  M.  D. 

F.  L.  Olmstead,  Esq.  G.  F.  Allen,  Esq. 

REGISTRATION   COMMITTEE. 

E.  Blackwell,  M.  D.,  Chairman.    Mrs.  W.  P.  Griffin,  Secretary. 
Mrs.  H.  Baylis.  Mrs.  J.  A.  Swett. 

Mrs.  V.  Botta.  Mrs.  C.  Abernethy. 

Wm.  A.  Muhlenburg,  D.  D.       E.  Harris,  M.  D. 

FINANCE    COMMITTEE. 

Howard  Potter,  Esq.  Mrs.  Hamilton  Fish. 

John  D.  Wolfe,  Esq.  Mrs.  C.  M.  Kirkland. 

William  Hague,  D.  D.  Mrs.  C.  W.  Field. 

J.  H.  Markoe,  M.  D.  Asa  D.  Smith,  D.  D. 

While  in  Washington,  Dr.  Bellows  originated  the  "  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,"  and  on  the  24th  of  June,  1864,  the 
Woman's  Central  voluntarily  offered  to  become  subordinate  as 
one  of  its  branches  of  supply.  The  following  September  this 
offer  was  accepted  in  a  formal  resolution,  establishing  also  a  semi- 
weekly  correspondence  between  the  two  boards,  by  which  the 
wants  of  the  army  were  made  known  to  the  Woman's  Central. 

Prominent  and  onerous  were  the  duties  of  the  Registration 
Committee.  Its  members  met  daily,  to  select  from  numberless 
applicants,  women  fitted  to  receive  special  training  in  our  city 
hospitals  for  the  position  of  nurses.  So  much  of  moral  as  Avell 
as  mental  excellence  was  indispensable,  that  the  committee  found 
its  labors  incessant.  Then  followed  the  supervision  while  in 
hospital,  and  while  awaiting  a  summons,  then  the  outfit  and  for 
warding,  often  suddenly  and  in  bands,  and  lastly,  the  acceptance 
by  the  War  Department  and  Medical  Bureau. 

*  This  lady's  place  was  filled  by  her  daughter  from  the  beginning. 


529 

The  chairman  of  the  committee,  Miss  E.  Blackwell,  accompa 
nied  by  its  secretary,  Mrs.  Griffin,  went  to  Washington  in  this 
service.  Miss  BlackwelFs  admirable  report  "on  the  selection 
and  preparation  of  nurses  for  the  army/7  will  always  be  a  source 
of  pride  to  the  Woman's  Central. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Finance  and  Executive  Committees  were 
struggling  for  a  strong  foothold.  The  chairman  of  the  former, 
Mrs.  Hamilton  Fish,  raised  over  five  thousand  dollars  by  per 
sonal  effort.  The  latter  committee  had  the  liveliest  contests,  for 
the  Government  declared  itself  through  the  Army  Regulation, 
equal  to  any  demands,  and  the  people  were  disposed  to  cry  amen. 
Rumors  of  "  a  ninety  days'  war,"  and  "  already  more  lint  than 
would  be  needed  for  years,"  stirred  the  committee  to  open  at  once 
a  correspondence  with  sewing-societies,  churches,  and  communities 
in  New  York  and  elsewhere.  Simultaneously,  the  Sanitary 
Commission  issued  an  explanatory  circular,  urgent  and  minute, 
"  To  the  loyal  women  of  America." 

Then  began  that  slow  yet  sure  stream  of  supplies  which  flowed 
on  to  the  close  of  the  war,  so  slow,  indeed,  at  first,  and  so  impa 
tiently  hoped  for,  that  the  members  of  the  committee  could  not 
wait,  but  must  rush  to  the  street  to  see  the  actual  arrival  of  boxes 
and  bales.  Soon,  however,  that  good  old  office,  No.  10,  Cooper 
Union,  became  rich  in  everything  needed;  rich,  too,  in  young 
women  to  unpack,  mark  and  repack,  in  old  women  to  report 
forthcoming  contributions  from  grocers,  merchants  and  tradesmen, 
and  richer  than  all,  in  those  wondrous  boxes  of  sacrifices  from 
the  country,  the  last  blanket,  the  inherited  quilt,  curtains  torn 
from  windows,  and  the  coarse  yet  ancestral  linen.  In  this  per 
sonal  self-denial  the  city  had  no  part.  What  wonder  that  the 
whole  corps  of  the  Woman's  Central  felt  their  time  and  physicial 
fatigue  as  nothing  in  comparison  to  these  heart  trials.  Out  of 
this  responsive  earnestness  grew  the  carefully  prepared  reports 
and  circulars,  the  filing  of  letters,  thousands  in  number,  contained 
in  twenty-five  volumes,  their  punctilious  and  grateful  acknow- 

67 


530 

lodgement,  and  the  thorough  plan  of  books,  three  in  number,  by 
which  the  whole  story  of  the  Woman's  Central  may  be  learnt, 
and  well  would  it  repay  the  study. 

First,  The  receiving  book  recorded  the  receipt  and  acknow 
ledgement  of  box. 

Second,  In  the  day  book,  each  page  was  divided  into  columns, 
in  which  was  recorded,  the  letter  painted  on  the  cover  of  each 
box  to  designate  it,  and  the  kind  and  amount  of  supplies  which 
each  contained  after  repacking,  only  one  description  of  supplies 
being  placed  in  any  one  box.  So  many  cases  were  received  dur 
ing  the  four  years,  that  the  alphabet  was  repeated  seven  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  times. 

Third,  The  ledger  with  its  headings  of  "  shirts,"  "  drawers,'7 
"socks,"  etc.,  so  arranged,  that  on  sudden  demand,  the  exact 
number  of  any  article  on  hand  could  be  ascertained  at  a  glance. 

Thus  early  began  through  these  minute  details,  the  effectiveness 
of  the  Woman's  Central.  Every  woman  engaged  in  it  learnt  the 
value  of  precision. 

A  sub-committee  for  New  York  and  Brooklyn  was  formed, 
consisting  of  Mrs.  W.  M.  Fellows,  and  Mrs.  Robert  Colby,  to 
solicit  from  citizens,  donations  of  clothing,  and  supplies  of  all 
kinds.  These  ladies  were  active,  successful  and  clerkly  withal, 
giving  receipts  for  every  article  received. 

Those  present  at  Dr.  Bellows'  Church  in  May,  will  never 
forget  the  first  thrilling  call  for  nurses  on  board  the  hospital 
transports.  The  duty  was  imperative,  was  untried  and  therefore 
startling.  It  was  like  a  sudden  plunge  into  unknown  waters,  yet 
many  brave  women  enrolled  their  names.  From  the  Woman's 
Central  went  forth  Mrs.  Griffin  accompanied  by  Mrs.  David  Lane. 
They  left  at  once  in  the  "  Wilson  Small,"  and  went  up  the  York 
and  Pamunkey  rivers,  and  to  White  House,  thus  tasting  the  first 
horrors  of  war.  This  experience  would  form  a  brilliant  chapter 
in  the  history  of  the  Woman's  Central. 

In  June,  1861,  the  association  met  with  a  great  loss  in  the 


531 

departure  of  Mrs.  d'Ore'mieulx,  for  Europe.  Of  her  Dr.  Bel 
lows  said :  "  It  would  be  ungrateful  not  to  acknowledge  the  zeal, 
devotion  and  ability  of  one  of  the  ladies  of  this  committee,  Mrs. 
d'Ore'mieulx,  now  absent  from  the  country,  who  labored  inces 
santly  in  the  earlier  months  of  the  organization,  and  gave  a  most 
vital  start  to  the  life  of  this  committee."  This  lady  resumed  her 
duties  after  a  year's  absence,  and  continued  her  characteristic  force 
and  persistency  up  to  the  close. 

At  this  time,  Mr.  S.  W.  Bridgham  put  his  broad  shoulders  to 
the  wheel.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  board  from  the  begin 
ning,  but  not  a  "  day-laborer"  until  now.  And  not  this  alone, 
for  he  was  a  night-laborer  also.  At  midnight,  and  in  the  still 
"  darker  hours  which  precede  the  dawn,"  Mr.  Bridgham  and  his 
faithful  ally,  Roberts,  often  left  their  beds  to  meet  sudden  emer 
gencies,  and  to  ship  comforts  to  distant  points.  On  Sundays  too, 
he  and  his  patriotic  wife  might  be  easily  detected  creeping  under 
the  half-opened  door  of  Number  10,  to  gather  up  for  a  sudden 
requisition,  and  then  to  beg  of  the  small  city  expresses,  transpor 
tation  to  ship  or  railroad.  This  was  often  his  Sunday  worship. 
His  heart  and  soul  were  given  to  the  work. 

In  November,  1862,  a  council  of  representatives  from  the  prin 
cipal  aid-societies,  now  numbering  fourteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
two,  was  held  in  Washington.  The  chief  object  was  to  obtain 
supplies  more  steadily.  Immediately  after  a  battle,  but  too  late 
for  the  exigency,  there  was  an  influx,  then  a  lull.  The  Woman's 
Central  therefore  urged  its  auxiliaries  to  send  a  monthly  box.  .  It 
also  urged  the  Federal  principle,  that  is,  the  bestowment  of  all 
supplies  on  United  States  troops,  and  not  on  individuals  or  regi 
ments,  and  explained  to  the  public  that  the  Sanitary  Commission 
acted  in  aid  of,  and  not  in  opposition  to  the  government. 

In  January,  1863,  all  supplies  had  been  exhausted  by  the 
battles  of  Antietam  and  Fredericksburg.  Everything  was  again 
needed.  An  able  letter  of  inquiry  to  secretaries  of  the  auxiliary 
societies  with  a  preliminary  statement  of  important  facts,  was 


532 

drawn  up  by  Miss  Louisa  L.  Schuyler,  and  issued  in  pamphlet 
form.  Two  hundred  and  thirty-five  replies  were  received,  (all  to 
be  read) !  which  were  for  the  most  part  favorable  to  the  Sanitary 
Commission  with  its  Federal  principle  as  a  medium,  and  all 
breathed  the  purest  patriotism. 

In  February,  the  plan  of  "  Associate  Managers"  borrowed  from 
the  Boston  branch  was  adopted.  Miss  Schuyler  assumed  the 
whole  labor.  It  was  a  division  of  the  tributary  states  into  sec 
tions,  an  associate  manager  to  each,  who  should  supervise,  control 
and  stimulate  every  aid-society  in  her  section,  going  from  village 
to  village,  and  organizing,  if  need  be,  as  she  went.  She  should 
hold  a  friendly  correspondence  monthly,  with  the  committee  on 
correspondence  (now  separated  from  that  on  supplies)  besides  send 
ing  an  official  monthly  report.  To  ascertain  the  right  woman, 
one  who  should  combine  the  talent,  energy,  tact  and  social  influ 
ence  for  this  severe  field,  was  the  difficult  preliminary  step.  Then, 
to  gain  her  consent,  to  instruct,  and  to  place  her  in  relations  with 
the  auxiliaries,  involved  an  amount  of  correspondence  truly  fright 
ful.  It  was  done.  Yet,  in  one  sense,  it  was  never  done;  for  up 
to  the  close,  innumerable  little  rills  from  "pastures  new"  were 
guided  on  to  the  great  stream.  The  experience  of  every  associate 
manager,  endeared  to  the  Woman's  Central  through  the  closest 
sympathy  would  be  a  rare  record. 

An  elaborate  and  useful  set  of  books  was  arranged  by  Miss 
Schuyler  in  furtherance  of  the  work  of  the  committee  "on  corres 
pondence,  and  diffusion  of  information."  Lecturers  were  also  to  be 
obtained  by  this  committee,  and  this  involved  much  forethought 
and  preparation  of  the  field.  Three  hundred  and  sixty-nine  lec 
tures  were  delivered  upon  the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
by  nine  gentlemen. 

State  agencies  made  great  confusion  in  the  hospitals.  The 
Sanitary  Commission  was  censured  for  employing  paid  agents, 
and  its  board  of  officers  even,  was  accused  of  receiving  salaries. 
Its  agents  were  abused  for  wastefulness,  as  if  the  frugality  so 


533 

proper  in  health,  were  not  improper  in  sickness.  Reports  were 
in  circulation  injurious  to  the  honor  of  the  Commission.  Ex 
planations  had  become  necessary.  The  Woman's  Central,  there 
fore,  published  a  pamphlet  written  by  Mr.  George  T.  Strong, 
entitled:  "How  can  we  best  help  our  Camps  and  Hospitals?" 
In  this  the  absolute  necessity  of  paid  agents  was  conclusively 
vindicated ;  the  false  report  of  salaries  to  the  board  of  officers  was 
denied,  and  the  true  position  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  with 
reference  to  the  National  Government  and  its  medical  bureau  was 
again  patiently  explained.  A  series  of  letters  from  assistant-sur 
geons  of  the  army  and  of  volunteers,  recommending  the  Com 
mission  to  the  confidence  of  the  people,  was  also  inserted. 

About  this  time  a  Hospital  Directory  was  opened  at  Number 
10,  Cooper  Union. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  the  Woman's  Central  continued  to  be 
harassed,  not  by  want  of  money,  for  that  was  always  promised 
by  its  undaunted  treasurer,  but  by  lack  of  clothing  and  edibles. 
The  price  of  all  materials  had  greatly  advanced,  the  reserved  treas 
ures  of  every  household  were  exhausted,  the  early  days  of  have- 
locks  and  Sunday  industry  had  gone  forever,  and  the  Sanitary 
Commission  was  frequently  circumvented  and  calumniated  by  rival 
organizations.  The  members  of  the  Woman's  Central  worked  inces 
santly.  Miss  Collins  was  always  at  her  post.  She  had  never  left 
it.  Her  hand  held  the  reins  taut  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  She 
alone  went  to  the  office  daily,  remaining  after  office  hours,  which 
were  from  nine  to  six,  and  taking  home  to  be  perfected  in  the  still 
hours  of  night  those  elaborate  tables  of  supplies  and  their  dis 
bursement,  which  formed  her  monthly  Report  to  the  Board  of 
the  Woman's  Central.  These  tables  are  a  marvel  of  method  and 
clearness. 

To  encourage  its  struggling  Aid-Societies,  who  were  without 
means,  but  earnest  in  their  offers  of  time  and  labor,  the  Woman's 
Central  offered  to  purchase  for  them  materials  at  wholesale  prices. 
This  was  eagerly  accepted  by  many.  A  purchasing  Committee 


534 

was  organized,  consisting  of  Mrs.  J.  H.  Swett,  Mrs.  H.  Fish, 
Mrs.  S.  Weir  Roosevelt, 

Miss  Schuyler's  wise  "  Plan  of  organization  for  country  So 
cieties/7  and  the  founding  of  "Alert-clubs,"  as  originated  in 
Norwalk  (Ohio),  also  infused  new  life  into  the  tributaries.  Her 
master-mind  smoothed  all  difficulties,  and  her  admirable  Reports 
so  full  of  power  and  pathos,  probed  the  patriotism  of  all.  So 
cieties  were  urged  to  work  as  if  the  war  had  just  begun.  From 
these  united  efforts,  supplies  came  in  steadily,  so  that  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1863,  the  Woman's  Central,  was  able  to  contribute  largely 
to  the  Stations  at  Beaufort  and  Morris  Island.  The  blessings  thus 
poured  in  were  dispensed  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Marsh,  with  their 
usual  good  judgment,  and  it  is  grateful  to  remember  that  the 
sufferers  from  that  thrilling  onslaught  at  Fort  Wagner,  were 
among  the  recipients. 

In  the  summer  of  1863,  the  Association  lost  its  faithful  Secre 
tary,  Mr.  George  F.  Allen.  Mr.  S.  W.  Bridgham  was  elected 
in  his  place. 

During  this  eventful  summer,  Miss  Collins  and  Mrs.  Griffin, 
had  sole  charge  of  the  office,  through  the  terrible  New  York 
riots.  These  ladies  usually  alternated  in  the  summer  months, 
never  allowing  the  desk  of  the  Supply  Committee  to  be  without 
a  responsible  head.  Mrs.  Griffin  also  became  Chairman  of  the 
Special  Relief  Committee  organized  in  1863,  all  of  whom  made 
personal  visits  to  the  sick,  and  relieved  many  cases  of  extreme 
suffering. 

Early  in  January,  1864,  a  Council  of  women  was  summoned 
to  Washington.  Thirty-one  delegates  were  present  from  the 
Eastern  and  Western  branches.  Miss  Collins  and  Miss  Schuyler 
were  sent  by  the  Woman's  Central.  This  meeting  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  the  work.  These  toilers  in  the  war  met  face  to  face, 
compared  their  various  experiences,  and  suggested  future  expe 
dients.  Miss  Schuyler  took  special  pains  to  encourage  personal 
intercourse  between  the  different  branches.  Her  telescopic  eye 


535 

swept  the  whole  field.  The  only  novelty  proposed,  was  County 
Councils  every  three  or  six  months,  composed  of  delegates  from 
the  Aid-Societies.  This  would  naturally  quicken  emulation,  and 
prove  a  wholesome  stimulus.  Westchester  County  led  imme 
diately  in  this  movement. 

About  this  time  supplies  were  checked  by  the  whirlwind  of 
"  Fairs/7  The  Woman's  Central,  issued  a  Circular  urging  its 
Auxiliaries  to  continue  their  regular  contributions,  and  to  make 
their  working  for  Fairs  a  pastime  only.  In  no  other  way  could 
it  meet  the  increased  demands  upon  its  resources,  for  the  sphere 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission's  usefulness  had  now  extended  to 
remotest  States,  and  its  vast  machinery  for  distribution  had  be 
come  more  and  more  expensive. 

Letters  poured  in  from  the  country,  unflinching  letters,  but 
crying  out,  "  we  are  poor."  What  was  to  be  done  ?  How  en 
courage  these  devoted  sewing-circles  and  aid-societies?  Every 
article  had  advanced  still  more  in  price.  A  plan  was  devised  to 
double  the  amount  of  any  sum  raised  by  the  feeble  Aid-Societies, 
not  exceeding  thirty  dollars  per  month.  Thus,  any  Society  send 
ing  twenty  dollars,  received  in  return,  goods  to  the  value  of  forty. 
This  scheme  proved  successful.  It  grew  into  a  large  business, 
increasing  greatly  the  labors  of  the  Purchasing  Committee,  in 
volving  a  new  set  of  account  books  and  a  salaried  accountant. 
Duly  the  smaller  Societies  availed  themselves  of  this  offer.  The 
Sanitary  Commission,  agreed  to  meet  this  additional  expense  of 
the  Woman's  Central,  amounting  to  over  five  thousand  dollars 
per  month.  Thus  an  accumulation  was  gathered  for  the  coming 
campaign. 

In  November,  1864,  The  Woman's  Central  convened,  and 
defrayed  the  expenses  of  a  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  Council,  at  which 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  delegates  were  present. 

The  Military  Hospitals  near  the  city  had,  from  time  to  time, 
received  assistance,  though  not  often  needed  from  the  Association. 
The  Navy  too,  received  occasional  aid. 


536 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  The  Woman's  Central  lost  its  Presi 
dent,  Dr.  Mott,  whose  fame  gave  weight  to  its  early  organization. 
From  respect  to  his  memory,  it  was  resolved  that  no  other  should 
fill  his  place. 

At  last,  in  April,  1865,  came  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy.  Lee 
had  surrendered.  In  May,  Miss  Collins  wrote  a  congratulatory 
letter  to  the  Aid-Societies,  naming  the  4th  of  July,  as  the  closing 
day  of  the  Woman's  Central,  and  urging  active  work  up  to  that 
time,  as  hospital  and  field  supplies  would  still  be  needed.  With 
tender  forethought,  she  also  begged  them  to  keep  alive  their  or 
ganizations,  for  "  the  privilege  of  cherishing  the  maimed  and 
disabled  veterans  who  are  returning  to  us." 

The  receipts  and  disbursements  of  the  Woman's  Central  are 
as  astounding  to  itself  as  to  the  public.  So  much  love  and  patriot 
ism,  so  little  money!  As  early  as  May,  1863,  the  Treasurer  in 
his  Report,  remarks : 

"  That  so  small  a  sum  should  cover  all  the  general  amount  of 
expenses  of  the  Association  in  the  transaction  of  a  business  which, 
during  the  year,  has  involved  the  receipt  or  purchase,  assorting, 
cataloguing,  marking,  packing,  storing  and  final  distribution  of 
nearly  half  a  million  of  articles,  will  be  no  less  satisfactory  to  the 
donors  of  the  funds  so  largely  economized  for  the  direct  benefit 
of  the  soldier,  than  to  those  friends  of  the  Association  from  whose 
self-denying,  patriotic  and  indefatigable  personal  labors,  this 
economy  has  resulted." 

In  the  Table  of  supplies  received  and  distributed  from  May 
1st,  1861,  to  July  7th,  1865,  prepared  by  Miss  Collins,  the  item 
of  shirts  alone  amounts  to  two  hundred  and  ninety-one  thousand 
four  hundred  and  seventy-five. 

For  four  years'  distribution,  purchase  of  hospital  delicacies,  and 
all  office  expenses,  except  those  of  the  committee  which  purchased 
material  for  the  aid-societies  amounting  to  seventy-nine  thousand 
three  hundred  and  ninety  dollars  and  fifty-seven  cents,  the  sum 


I  if^'-tf    ")RJ.  \\  ^mail's  Contra..'   io-?  its  Presi- 
>.-*j  fltnv  ;vHve  wi^ht;  to  its  early  ij&faizp.uou* 
iiHtuu  v.  <t  wa£  re.-oived  fLat  n 


-  rr;t    •  V-  • 


-<^  them  to    'i;f 
f*  clrf-rislSba* 


isrt'   ;«:;r  or- 
fnaimed  and 


rchase,  assorting, 
:-;:-i»)utiou  of 


ho.se  of  the  romnuii^c  v-  -^t^i'd 

t'-s  amounting  to  seven;  -'vusand 

I'loJlars  arid  iifty-3t»vt:i-    -         the  sum 


WOMAN  S    CENTRAL    ASSOCIATION   OF    RELIEF.  539 

labors.  Their  record,  liowever  hidden,  is  on  high,  and  they  have  in  their  own 
hearts  the  joyful  testimony,  that  in  their  country's  peril  and  need  they  were  not 
found  wanting. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Association  are  due  to  the  ladies  who  have, 
at  different  times,  served  upon  the  Board,  but  are  no  longer  members  of  it;  and 
that  we  recall  in  this  hour  of  parting  the  memory  of  each  and  all  who  have 
lent  us  the  light  of  their  countenance,  and  the  help  of  their  hands.  Especially 
do  we  recognize  the  valuable  aid  rendered  by  the  members  of  our  Registration 
Committee,  who,  in  the  early  days  of  this  Association,  superintended  the  train 
ing  of  a  band  of  one  hundred  women  nurses  for  our  army  hospitals.  The  suc 
cessful  introduction  of  this  system  is  chiefly  due  to  the  zeal  and  capacity  of 
these  ladies. 

Resolved,  That  in  dissolving  this  Association,  we  desire  to  express  the  grati 
tude  we  owe  to  Divine  Providence  for  permitting  the  members  of  this  Board  to 
work  together  in  so  great  and  so  glorious  a  cause,  and  upon  so  large  and  success 
ful  a  scale,  to  maintain  for  so  long  a  period,  relations  of  such  affection  and 
respect,  and  now  to  part  with  such  deep  and  grateful  memories  of  our  work  and 
of  each  other. 

Resolved,  That,  the  close  of  the  war  having  enabled  this  Association  to  finish 
the  work  for  which  it  was  organized,  the  Woman's  Central  Association  of 
Kelief  for  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  is  hereby  dissolved. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned  sine  die. 

SAMUEL  W.  BRIDGHAM,  Secretary. 

For  further  and  better  knowledge  of  the  Woman's  Central,  is 
it  not  written  in  the  book  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Board  of  the 
United  States  Sanitary  Commission  ? 


SOLDIERS'  AID   SOCIETY  OF   NORTH 
ERN    OHIO. 


MONG  the  branches  or  centres  of  supply  and  distribu 
tion  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  though 
some  with  a  wider  field  and  a  more  wealthy  popula 
tion  in  that  field  have  raised  a  larger  amount  of  money 
or  supplies,  there  was  none  which  in  so  small  and  seemingly 
barren  a  district  proved  so  efficient  or  accomplished  so  much  as 
the  "Soldiers'  Aid  Society  of  Northern  Ohio." 

This  extraordinary  efficiency  was  due  almost  wholly  to  the 
wonderful  energy  and  business  ability  of  its  officers.  The  society 
which  at  first  bore  the  name  of  The  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  of 
Cleveland,  was  composed  wholly  of  ladies,  and  was  organized  on 
the  20th  day  of  April,  1861,  five  days  after  the  President's  pro 
clamation  calling  for  troops.  Its  officers  were  (exclusive  of  vice- 
presidents  who  were  changed  once  or  twice  and  who  were  not 
specially  active)  Mrs.  B.  Rouse,  President,  Miss  Mary  Clark 
Brayton,  Secretary,  Miss  Ellen  F.  Terry,  Treasurer.  These 
ladies  continued  their  devotion  to  their  work  not  only  through 
the  war,  but  with  a  slight  change  in  their  organization,  to  enable 
them  to  do  more  for  the  crippled  and  disabled  soldier,  and  to 
collect  without  fee  or  reward  the  bounties,  back  pay  and  pensions 
coming  to  the  defenders  of  the  country,  has  remained  in  existence 
and  actively  employed  up  to  the  present  time. 

No  constitution  or  by-laws  were  ever  adopted,  and  beyond  a 

540 


541 

verbal  pledge  to  work  for  the  soldiers  while  the  war  should  last, 
and  a  fee  of  twenty-five  cents  monthly,  no  form  of  membership 
was  prescribed  and  no  written  word  held  the  society  together  to 
its  latest  day.  Its  sole  cohesive  power  was  the  bond  of  a  common 
and  undying  patriotism. 

In  October,  1861,  it  was  offered  to  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission,  as  one  of  its  receiving  and  disbursing  branches,  and 
the  following  month  its  name  was  changed  to  The  Soldiers7  Aid 
Society  of  Northern  Ohio.  Its  territory  was  very  small  and  not 
remarkable  for  wealth.  It  had  auxiliaries  in  eighteen  counties 
of  Northeastern  Ohio,  (Toledo  and  its  vicinity  being  connected 
with  the  Cincinnati  Branch,  and  the  counties  farther  west  with 
Chicago),  and  a  few  tributaries  in  the  counties  of  Michigan,  New 
York,  and  Pennsylvania,  which  bordered  on  Ohio,  of  which  that 
at  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  was  the  only  considerable  one. 

In  this  region,  Cleveland  was  the  only  considerable  city,  and 
the  population  of  the  territory  though  largely  agricultural  was 
not  possessed  of  any  considerable  wealth,  nor  was  the  soil  remark 
ably  fertile. 

In  November,  1861,  the  society  had  one  hundred  and  twenty 
auxiliaries.  A  year  later  the  number  of  these  had  increased  to 
four  hundred  and  fifty,  and  subsequently  an  aggregate  of  five 
hundred  and  twenty  was  attained.  None  of  these  ever  seceded 
or  became  disaffected,  but  throughout  the  war  the  utmost  cor 
diality  prevailed  between  them  and  the  central  office. 

In  the  five  years  from  its  organization  to  April,  1866,  this 
society  had  collected  and  disbursed  one  hundred  and  thirty  thou 
sand  four  hundred  and  five  dollars  and  nine  cents  in  cash,  and 
one  million  and  three  thousand  dollars  in  stores,  making  a  grand 
total  of  one  million  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  four 
hundred  and  five  dollars  and  nine  cents.  This  amount  was 
received  mainly  from  contributions,  though  the  excess  over  one 
million  dollars,  was  mostly  received  from  the  proceeds  of  exhi 
bitions,  concerts,  and  the  Northern  Ohio  Sanitary  Fair  held  in 


542 

February  and  March,  1864.  The  net  proceeds  of  this  fair  were 
about  seventy-nine  thousand  dollars. 

The  supplies  thus  contributed,  as  well  as  so  much  of  the  money 
as  was  not  required  for  the  other  objects  of  the  society,  of  which 
we  shall  say  more  presently,  were  forwarded  to  the  Western 
Depot  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  at  Louisville,  except  in  a  few 
instances  where  they  were  required  for  the  Eastern  armies.  The 
reception,  re-packing  and  forwarding  of  this  vast  quantity  of 
stores,  as  well  as  all  the  correspondence  required  with  the  auxili 
aries  and  with  the  Western  office  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
and  the  book-keeping  which  was  necessary  in  consequence, 
involved  a  great  amount  of  labor,  but  was  performed  with  the 
utmost  cheerfulness  by  the  ladies  whom  we  have  named  as  the 
active  officers  of  the  society. 

Among  the  additional  institutions  or  operations  of  this  society 
connected  with,  yet  outside  of  its  general  work  of  receiving  and 
disbursing  supplies,  the  most  important  was  the  "Soldiers7 
Home,"  established  first  on  the  17th  of  April,  1861,  as  a  lodging- 
room  for  disabled  soldiers  in  transit,  and  having  connected  with 
it  a  system  of  meal  tickets,  which  were  given  to  deserving  sol 
diers  of  this  class,  entitling  the  holder  to  a  meal  at  the  depot 
dining  hall,  the  tickets  being  redeemed  monthly  by  the  society. 
In  October,  1863,  the  "Soldiers7  Home,"  a  building  two  hundred 
and  thirty-five  feet  long  and  twenty-five  feet  wide,  erected  and 
furnished  by  funds  contributed  by  citizens  of  Cleveland  at  the 
personal  solicitation  of  the  ladies,  was  opened,  and  was  maintained 
until  June  1,  1866,  affording  special  relief  to  fifty-six  thousand 
five  hundred  and  twenty  registered  inmates,  to  whom  were  given 
one  hundred  and  eleven  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seven 
meals,  and  twenty-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventy-three 
lodgings,  at  an  entire  cost  of  twenty-seven  thousand  four  hundred 
and  eight  dollars  and  three  cents.  No  government  support  was 
received  for  this  home,  and  no  rations  drawn  from  the  commissary 
as  in  most  institutions  of  this  kind. 


543 

The  officers  of  the  society  gave  daily  personal  attention  to  the 
Home,  directing  its  management  minutely,  and  the  superintend 
ent,  matron  and  other  officials  were  employed  by  them. 

The  society  also  established  a  hospital  directory  for  the  soldiers 
of  its  territory,  and  recorded  promptly  the  location  and  condition 
of  the  sick  or  wounded  men  from  returns  received  from  all  the 
hospitals  in  which  they  were  found  ;  a  measure  which  though 
involving  great  labor,  was  the  means  of  relieving  the  anxiety 
of  many  thousands  of  the  friends  of  these  men. 

In  May,  1865,  an  Employment  Agency  was  opened,  and  con 
tinued  for  six  months.  Two  hundred  and  six  discharged  soldiers, 
mostly  disabled,  were  put  into  business  situations  by  the  personal 
efforts  of  the  officers  of  the  society.  The  families  of  the  disabled 
men  were  cared  for  again  and  again,  many  of  them  being  regular 
pensioners  of  the  society. 

The  surplus  funds  of  the  society,  amounting  June  1st,  1866, 
to  about  nine  thousand  dollars,  were  used  in  the  settlement  of  all 
war  claims  of  soldiers,  bounties,  back  pay,  pensions,  etc.,  gratui 
tously  to  the  claimant.  For  this  purpose,  an  agent  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  whole  business  of  the  Pension  Office,  and  the 
bureaus  before  which  claims  could  come,  was  employed,  and  Miss 
Brayton  and  Miss  Terry  were  daily  in  attendance  as  clerks  at 
the  office.  Up  to  August  1st,  1866,  about  four  hundred  claims 
had  been  adjusted. 

The  entire  time  of  the  officers  of  the  society  daily  from  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  six  and  often  later  in  the  evening,  was 
given  to  this  work  through  the  whole  period  of  the  war,  and  in 
deed  until  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1866.  The  ladies  being 
all  in  circumstances  of  wealth,  or  at  least  of  independence,  no 
salary  was  asked  or  received,  and  no  traveling  expenses  were  ever 
charged  to  the  Society,  though  the  president  visited  repeatedly 
every  part  of  their  territory,  organizing  and  encouraging  the 
auxiliary  societies,  and  both  secretary  and  treasurer  went  more 
than  once  to  the  front  of  the  army,  and  to  the  large  general  hos- 


544 

pitals  at  Louisville,  Nashville,  Chattanooga,  etc.,  with  a  view  to 
obtaining  knowledge  which  might  benefit  their  cause. 

In  August,  1864,  a  small  printing  office,  with  a  hand-press, 
was  attached  to  the  rooms ;  the  ladies  learned  how  to  set  type  and 
work  the  press,  and  issued  weekly  bulletins  to  their  auxiliaries  to 
encourage  and  stimulate  their  efforts.  For  two  years  from  Octo 
ber,  1862,  two  columns  were  contributed  to  a  weekly  city  paper  by 
these  indefatigable  ladies  for  the  benefit  of  their  auxiliaries.  These 
local  auxiliary  societies  were  active  and  loyal,  but  they  needed 
constant  encouragement,  and  incentives  to  action,  to  bring  and 
keep  them  up  to  their  highest  condition  of  patriotic  effort. 

The  Sanitary  Fair  at  Cleveland  was  not,  as  in  many  other 
cases,  originated  and  organized  by  outside  effort,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Branch  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  but  had  its  origin,  its 
organization  and  its  whole  management  directly  from  the  Sol 
diers7  Aid  Society  itself. 

In  November,  1865,  the  Ohio  State  Soldiers7  Home  was  opened, 
and  the  Legislature  having  made  no  preparation  for  its  immedi 
ate  wants,  the  Soldiers7  Aid  Society  made  a  donation  of  five 
thousand  dollars  for  the  support  of  its  members. 

With  a  brief  sketch  of  each  of  these  ladies,  we  close  our  his 
tory  of  the  Soldiers7  Aid  Society  of  Northern  Ohio. 

Mrs.  Rouse  is  a  widow,  somewhat  advanced  in  life,  small  and 
delicately  organized,  and  infirm  in  health,  but  of  tireless  energy 
and  exhaustless  sympathy  for  every  form  of  human  suffering. 
For  forty  years  past  she  has  been  foremost  in  all  benevolent 
movements  among  the  ladies  of  Cleveland,  spending  most  of  her 
time  and  income  in  the  relief  of  the  unfortunate  and  suffering ; 
yet  it  is  the  testimony  of  all  who  knew  her,  that  she  is  entirely 
free  from  all  personal  ambition,  and  all  love  of  power  or  notoriety. 
Though  earnestly  patriotic,  and  ready  to  do  all  in  her  power  for 
her  country,  there  is  nothing  masculine,  or  as  the  phrase  goes, 
"  strong-minded 77  in  her  demeanor.  She  is  a  descendant  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  and  has  much  of  his  energy  and  power  of  endurance, 


545 

but  none  of  his  coarseness,  being  remarkably  unselfish,  and  lady 
like  in  her  manners.  During  the  earlier  years  of  the  war,  she 
spent  much  of  her  time  in  visiting  the  towns  of  the  territory 
assigned  to  the  society,  and  promoting  the  formation  of  local 
Soldiers7  Aid  Societies,  and  it  was  due  to  her  efforts  that  there 
was  not  a  town  of  any  size  in  the  region  to  which  the  society 
looked  for  its  contributions  which  had  not  its  aid  society,  or  its 
Alert  Club,  or  both.  Though  plain  and  petite  in  person,  she 
possessed  a  rare  power  of  influencing  those  whom  she  addressed, 
and  never  failed  to  inspire  them  with  the  resolution  to  do  all  in 
their  power  for  the  country.  At  a  later  period  the  laborious 
duties  of  the  home  office  of  the  society  required  her  constant 
attention. 

Miss  Mary  Clark  Brayton,  the  secretary  of  the  society,  is  a 
young  lady  of  wealth,  high  social  position  and  accomplished  edu 
cation,  but  of  gentle  and  modest  disposition.  Since  the  spring 
of  1861,  she  has  isolated  herself  from  society,  and  the  pleasures 
of  intellectual  pursuits,  and  has  given  her  whole  time  and 
thoughts  to  the  one  work  of  caring  for  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers. 
From  early  morning  till  evening,  and  sometimes  far  into  the 
night,  she  has  toiled  in  the  rooms  of  the  society,  or  elsewhere, 
superintending  the  receiving  or  despatch  of  supplies,  conducting 
the  immense  correspondence  of  the  society,  preparing,  setting  up 
and  printing  its  weekly  bulletins,  or  writing  the  two  columns 
weekly  of  matter  for  the  Cleveland  papers,  on  topics  connected 
with  the  society's  work,  now  in  her  turn  superintending  and 
purchasing  supplies  for  the  Soldiers'  Home,  looking  out  a  place 
for  some  partially  disabled  soldier,  or  supplying  the  wants  of 
his  family;  occasionally,  though  at  rare  intervals,  varying  her 
labors  by  a  journey  to  the  front,  or  a  temporary  distribution  of 
supplies  at  some  general  hospital  at  Nashville,  Hunts ville,  Bridge 
port  or  Chattanooga,  and  then,  having  ascertained  by  personal 
inspection  what  was  most  necessary  for  the  comfort  and  health  of 
the  army,  returning  to  her  work,  and  by  eloquent  and  admirable 

69 


546 

appeals  to  the  auxiliaries,  and  to  her  personal  friends  in  Cleve 
land,  securing  and  forwarding  the  necessary  supplies  so  promptly, 
that  as  the  officers  of  the  Commission  at  Louisville  said,  it  seemed 
as  if  she  could  hardly  have  reached  Cleveland,  before  the  supplies 
began  to  flow  in  at  the  Commission's  warehouses  at  Louisville. 
Miss  Brayton  possesses  business  ability  sufficient  to  have  con 
ducted  the  enterprises  of  a  large  mercantile  establishment,  and 
the  complete  system  and  order  displayed  in  her  transaction  of 
business  would  have  done  honor  to  any  mercantile  house  in  the 
world.  Her  untiring  energy  repeatedly  impaired  her  health,  but 
she  has  never  laid  down  her  work,  and  has  no  disposition  to  do 
so,  while  there  is  an  opportunity  of  serving  the  defenders  of  her 
country. 

Miss  Ellen  F.  Terry,  the  treasurer  of  the  society,  is  a  daughter 
of  Dr.  Charles  Terry,  a  professor  in  the  Cleveland  Medical  Col 
lege.  Her  social  position,  like  that  of  Miss  Brayton,  is  the 
highest  in  that  city.  She  is  highly  educated,  familiar,  like  her 
friend  Miss  Brayton,  with  most  of  the  modern  languages  of 
Europe,  but  especially  proficient  in  mathematics.  During  the 
whole  period  of  the  war,  she  devoted  herself  as  assiduously  to 
the  work  of  the  society  as  did  Mrs.  Rouse  and  Miss  Brayton. 
She  kept  the  books  of  the  society  (in  itself  a  great  labor),  made 
all  its  disbursements  of  cash,  and  did  her  whole  work  with  a 
neatness,  accuracy  and  despatch  which  would  have  done  honor  to 
any  business  man  in  the  country.  No  monthly  statements  of 
accounts  from  any  of  the  branches  of  the  Sanitary  Commission 
reporting  to  its  Western  Office  at  Louisville  were  drawn  up  with 
such  careful  accuracy  and  completeness  as  those  from  the  Cleve 
land  branch,  although  in  most  of  the  others  experienced  and 
skilful  male  accountants  were  employed  to  make  them  up.  Miss 
Terry  also  superintended  the  building  of  the  Soldiers7  Home,  and 
took  her  turn  with  Miss  Brayton  in  its  management.  She  also 
assisted  in  the  other  labors  of  the  society,  and  made  occasional 
visits  to  the  front  and  the  hospitals.  Since  the  close  of  the  war 


SOLDIERS'   AID   SOCIETY   OF    NORTHERN   OHIO.  547 

she  and  Miss  Brayton  have  acted  as  clerks  of  the  Free  Claim 
Agency  for  recovering  the  dues  of  the  soldiers,  from  the  Govern 
ment  offices. 

We  depart  from  our  usual  practice  of  excluding  the  writings 
of  those  who  are  the  subjects  of  our  narratives,  to  give  the  follow 
ing  sprightly  description  of  one  of  the  hospital  trains  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  communicated  by  Miss  Brayton  to  the 
Cleveland  Herald,  not  so  much  to  give  our  readers  a  specimen  of 
her  abilities  as  a  writer,  as  to  illustrate  the  thorough  devotion  to 
their  patriotic  work  which  has  characterized  her  and  her  asso 
ciates. 

ON  A  HOSPITAL  TRAIN. 

"Riding  on  a  rail  in  the  ' Sunny  South/  is  not  the  most  agree 
able  pastime  in  the  world.  Don't  understand  me  to  refer  to  that 
favorite  argumentum  ad  hominem  which  a  true  Southerner  applies 
to  all  who  have  the  misfortune  to  differ  from  him,  especially  to 
Northern  abolitionists;  I  simply  mean  that  mode  of  traveling 
that  Saxe  in  his  funny  little  poem,  calls  so  '  pleasant/  And  no 
wonder !  To  be  whirled  along  at  the  rate  of  forty  miles  an  hour, 
over  a  smooth  road,  reposing  on  velvet-cushioned  seats,  with 
backs  just  at  the  proper  angle  to  rest  a  tired  head, — ice-water, — 
the  last  novel  or  periodical — all  that  can  tempt  your  fastidious 
taste,  or  help  to  while  away  the  time,  offered  at  your  elbow,  is 
indeed  pleasant;  but  wo  to  the  fond  imagination  that  pictures  to 
itself  such  luxuries  on  a  United  States  Military  Railroad.  Be 
thankful  if  in  the  crowd  of  tobacco-chewing  soldiers  you  are  able 
to  get  a  seat,  and  grumble  not  if  the  pine  boards  are  hard  and 
narrow.  Lay  in  a  good  stock  of  patience,  for  six  miles  an  hour 
is  probably  the  highest  rate  of  speed  you  will  attain,  and  even 
then  you  shudder  to  see  on  either  hand  strewn  along  the  road, 
wrecks  of  cars  and  locomotives  smashed  in  every  conceivable 
manner,  telling  of  some  fearful  accident  or  some  guerrilla  fight. 
These  are  discomforts  hard  to  bear  even  when  one  is  well  and 


548 

strong;  how  much  worse  for  a  sick  or  wounded  man.  But 
thanks  to  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  and  to  those 
gentlemen  belonging  to  it,  whose  genius  and  benevolence  origi 
nated,  planned,  and  carried  it  out,  a  hospital-train  is  now  running 
on  almost  all  the  roads  over  which  it  is  necessary  to  transport 
sick  or  wounded  men.  These  trains  are  now  under  the  control 
of  Government,  but  the  Sanitary  Commission  continues  to  fur 
nish  a  great  part  of  the  stores  that  are  used  in  them.  My  first 
experience  of  them  was  a  sad  one.  A  week  before,  the  army  had 
moved  forward  and  concentrated  near  Tunnel  Hill.  The  dull, 
monotonous  rumble  of  army  wagons  as  they  rolled  in  long  trains 
through  the  dusty  street;  the  measured  tramp  of  thousands  of 
bronzed  and  war-worn  veterans;  the  rattle  and  roar  of  the  guns 
and  caissons  as  they  thundered  on  their  mission  of  death;  the 
glittering  sheen  reflected  from  a  thousand  sabres,  had  all  passed 
by  and  left  us  in  the  desolated  town.  We  lived,  as  it  were,  with 
bated  breath  and  eager  ears,  our  nerves  tensely  strung  with  anx 
iety  and  suspense  waiting  to  catch  the  first  sound  of  that  coming 
strife,  where  we  knew  so  many  of  our  bravest  and  best  must  fall. 
At  last  came  the  news  of  that  terrible  fight  at  Buzzard's  Roost 

or  Rocky  Face  Ridge,  and  the  evening  after,  in  came  Dr.  S. 

straight  from  the  front,  and  said,  i  The  hospital-train  is  at  the 
depot,  wouldn't  you  like  to  see  it?'  'Of  course  we  would/  cho 
rused  Mrs.  Dr.  S. and  myself,  and  forthwith  we  rushed  for 

our  hats  and  cloaks,  filled  two  large  baskets  with  soft  crackers 
and  oranges,  and  started  off.  A  walk  of  a  mile  brought  us  to 
the  depot,  and  down  in  the  further  corner  of  the  dep6t-yard  wo 
saw  a  train  of  seven  or  eight  cars  standing,  apparently  unoccupied. 

' There  it  is/  said  Dr.  S. .     'Why,  it  looks  like  any  ordinary 

train/  I  innocently  remarked,  but  I  was  soon  to  find  out  the 
difference.  We  chanced  to  see  Dr.  Meyers,  the  Surgeon-in-charge, 
on  the  first  car  into  which  we  went,  and  he  made  us  welcome  to 
do  and  to  give  whatever  we  had  for  the  men,  and  so,  armed  with 


authority  from  the  ( powers  that  be/  we  went  forward  with  con 
fidence. 

"  Imagine  a  car  a  little  wider  than  the  ordinary  one,  placed  on 
springs,  and  having  on  each  side  three  tiers  of  berths  or  cots,  sus 
pended  by  rubber  bands.  These  cots  are  so  arranged  as  to  yield 
to  the  motion  of  the  car,  thereby  avoiding  that  jolting  experienced 
even  on  the  smoothest  and  best  kept  road.  I  didn't  stop  to  inves 
tigate  the  plan  of  the  car  then,  for  I  saw  before  me,  on  either 
hand,  a  long  line  of  soldiers,  shot  in  almost  every  conceivable 
manner,  their  wounds  fresh  from  the  battle-field,  and  all  were 
patient  and  quiet;  not  a  groan  or  complaint  escaped  them,  though 
I  saw  some  faces  twisted  into  strange  contortions  with  the  agony 
of  their  wounds.  I  commenced  distributing  my  oranges  right 
and  left,  but  soon  realized  the  smallness  of  my  basket  and  the 
largeness  of  the  demand,  and  sadly  passed  by  all  but  the  worst 
cases.  In  the  third  car  that  we  entered  we  found  the  Colonel, 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  and  Adjutant  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Ohio, 
all  severely  wounded.  We  stopped  and  talked  awhile.  Mindful 
of  the  motto  of  my  Commission,  to  give  'aid  and  comfort/  I 
trickled  a  little  sympathy  on  them.  'Poor  fellows!7  said  I.  'No, 
indeed/  said  they.  'We  did  suffer  riding  twenty  miles'  —  it 
couldn't  have  been  more  than  fourteen  or  fifteen,  but  a  shattered 
limb  or  a  ball  in  one's  side  lengthens  the  miles  astonishingly — in 
those  horrid  ambulances  to  the  cars.  '  We  cried  last  night  like 
children,  some  of  us/  said  a  Lieutenant,  '  but  we're  all  right  now. 
This  Hospital  Train  is  a  jolly  thing.  It  goes  like  a  cradle.7 
Seeing  my  sympathy  wasted,  I  tried  another  tack.  'Did  you 
know  that  Sherman  Avas  in  Dnlton?'  'No!'  cried  the  Colonel, 
and  all  the  men  who  could,  raised  themselves  up  and  stared  at 
me  with  eager,  questioning  eyes.  'Is  that  so?'  'Yes/  I  replied, 
'It  is  true.'  'Then,  I  don't  care  for  this  little  wound/  said  one 
fellow,  slapping  his  right  leg,  which  was  pierced  and  torn  by  a 
minie  ball.  Brave  men !  How  I  longed  to  take  our  whole  North, 
and  pour  out  its  wealth  and  luxury  at  their  feet. 


550 

"A  little  farther  on  in  the  car,  I  chanced  to  look  down,  and 
there  at  my  feet  lay  a  young  man,  not  more  than  eighteen  or  nine 
teen  years  old ;  hair  tossed  back  from  his  noble  white  brow ;  long 
brown  lashes  lying  on  his  cheek;  face  as  delicate  and  refined  as  a 
girl's.  I  spoke  to  him  and  he  opened  his  eyes,  but  could  not 
answer  me.  I  held  an  orange  before  him,  and  he  looked  a  Yes; 
so  I  cut  a  hole  in  it  and  squeezed  some  of  the  juice  into  his  mouth. 
It  seemed  to  revive  him  a  little,  and  after  sitting  a  short  time  I 
left  him.  Soon  after,  they  carried  him  out  on  a  stretcher — poor 
fellow!  He  was  dying  when  I  saw  him,  and  I  could  but  think 
of  his  mother  and  sisters  who  would  have  given  worlds  to  stand 
beside  him  as  I  did.  By  this  time  it  was  growing  dark,  my 
oranges  had  given  out,  and  we  were  sadly  in  the  way ;  so  we  left, 
to  be  haunted  for  many  a  day  by  the  terrible  pictures  we  had 
seen  on  our  first  visit  to  a  Hospital  Train. 

"  My  next  experience  was  much  pleasanter.  I  had  the  privi 
lege  of  a  ride  on  one  from  Chattanooga  to  Nashville,  and  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  the  plan  of  arrangement  of  the  train. 
There  were  three  hundred  and  fourteen  sick  and  wounded  men 
on  board,  occupying  nine  or  ten  cars,  with  the  surgeon's  car  in 
the  middle  of  the  train.  This  car  is  divided  into  three  compart 
ments  ;  at  one  end  is  the  store-room  where  are  kept  the  eatables 
and  bedding,  at  the  other,  the  kitchen;  and  betwreen  the  two  the 
surgeon's  room,  containing  his  bed,  secretary,  and  shelves  and 
pigeon  holes  for  instruments,  medicines,  etc.  A  narrow  hall  con 
nects  the  store-room  and  kitchen,  and  great  windows  or  openings 
in  the  opposite  sides  of  the  car  give  a  pleasant  draft  of  air.  Sit 
ting  in  a  comfortable  arm-chair,  one  would  not  wish  a  pleasanter 
mode  of  traveling,  especially  through  the  glorious  mountains  of 
East  Tennessee,  and  further  on,  over  the  fragrant,  fertile  meadows, 
and  the  rolling  hills  and  plains  of  Northern  Alabama  and  middle 
Tennessee,  clothed  in  their  fresh  green  garments  of  new  cotton 
and  corn.  This  is  all  charming  for  a  passenger,  but  a  hospital 
train  is  a  busy  place  for  the  surgeons  and  nurses. 


SOLDIERS'    AID   SOCIETY   OF   NORTHERN   OHIO.  551 

"The  men  come  on  at  evening,  selected  from  the  different  hos 
pitals,  according  to  their  ability  to  be  moved,  and  after  having 
had  their  tea,  the  wounds  have  to  be  freshly  dressed.  This  takes 
till  midnight,  perhaps  longer,  and  the  surgeon  must  be  on  the 
watch  continually,  for  on  him  falls  the  responsibility,  not  only  of 
the  welfare  of  the  men,  but  of  the  safety  of  the  train.  There  is 
a  conductor  and  brakeman,  and  for  them,  too,  there  is  110  rest. 
Each  finds  enough  to  do  as  nurse  or  assistant.  In  the  morning, 
after  a  breakfast  of  delicious  coffee  or  tea,  dried  beef,  dried  peaches, 
soft  bread,  cheese,  etc.,  the  wounds  have  to  be  dressed  a  second 
time,  and  again  in  the  afternoon,  a  third. 

"In  the  intervals  the  surgeon  finds  time  to  examine  individual 
cases,  and  prescribe  especially  for  them,  and  perhaps  to  take  a 
little  rest.  To  fulfil  the  duties  of  surgeon  in  charge  of  such  a 
train,  or  endure  the  terrible  strain  on  brain  and  nerves  and 
muscles,  requires  great  skill,  an  iron  will,  and  a  mind  undaunted 
by  the  shadow  of  any  responsibility  or  danger.  All  this  and 
more  has  Dr.  J.  P.  Barnum,  who  has  charge  of  the  train  formerly 
running  between  Louisville  and  Nashville,  but  now  transferred 
to  the  road  between  Nashville  and  Chattanooga.  With  a  touch 
gentle  as  a  woman,  yet  with  manly  strength  and  firmness,  and 
untiring  watchfulness  and  thoughtful  care,  he  seems  wholly 
devoted  to  the  work  of  benefiting  our  sick  and  wounded  soldiers. 
All  on  board  the  train  gave  him  the  warmest  thanks.  As  I 
walked  through  the  car,  I  heard  the  men  say,  'we  haven't  lived 
so  well  since  we  joined  the  army.  We  are  better  treated  than  we 
ever  were  before.  This  is  the  nicest  place  we  were  ever  in/  etc. 
Should  the  Doctor  chance  to  see  this,  he  will  be  shocked,  for 
modesty,  I  notice,  goes  hand  in  hand  with  true  nobility  and  gen 
erosity;  but  I  risk  his  wrath  for  the  selfish  pleasure  that  one  has 
in  doing  justice  to  a  good  man. 

"After  breakfast,  in  the  morning,  when  the  wounds  were  all 
dressed,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  carrying  into  one  car  a  pitcher  of 
delicious  blackberry  wine  that  came  from  the  Soldiers'  Aid  So- 


552  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

ciety  of  Northern  Ohio,  and  with  the  advice  of  Dr.  Yates,  the 
assistant  surgeon,  giving  it  to  the  men.  The  car  into  which  I 
went  had  only  one  tier  of  berths,  supported  like  the  others  on 
rubber  bands.  Several  times  during  the  day  I  had  an  opportu 
nity  of  giving  some  little  assistance  in  taking  care  of  wounded 
men,  and  it  was  very  pleasant.  My  journey  lasted  a  night  and  a 
day,  and  I  think  I  can  never  again  pass  another  twenty-four 
hours  so  fraught  with  sweet  and  sad  memories  as  are  connected 
with  my  second  and  last  experience  on  a  hospital  train." 


NEW  ENGLAND  WOMEN'S  AUXILIARY 
ASSOCIATION. 


MONG  the  branches  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com 
mission,  the  Association  which  is  named  above,  was 
one  of  the  most  efficient  and  untiring  in  its  labors.  It 
had  gathered  into  its  management,  a  large  body  of  the 
most  gifted  and  intellectual  women  of  Boston,  and  its  vicinity, 
women  who  knew  how  to  work  as  well  as  to  plan,  direct  and 
think.  These  were  seconded  in  their  efforts  by  a  still  larger  num 
ber  of  intelligent  and  accomplished  women  in  every  part  of  New 
England,  who,  as  managers  and  directors  of  the  auxiliaries  of  the 
Association,  roused  and  stimulated  by  their  own  example  and 
their  eloquent  appeals,  the  hearts  of  their  countrywomen  to  earn 
est  and  constant  endeavour  to  benefit  the  soldiers  of  our  National 
armies.  The  geographical  peculiarities  and  connections  of  the 
New  England  States,  were  such  that  after  the  first  year  Connec 
ticut  and  Rhode  Island  could  send  their  supplies  more  readily  to 
the  field  through  New  York  than  through  Boston,  and  hence  the 
Association  from  that  time,  had  for  its  field  of  operations,  only 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Massachusetts.  In  these 
four  States,  however,  it  had  one  thousand  and  fifty  auxiliaries, 
and  during  its  existence,  collected  nearly  three  hundred  and  fif 
teen  thousand  dollars  in  money,  and  fully  one  million,  two  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars  in  stores  and  supplies  for  the  work  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission.  In  December,  1863,  it  held  a  Sanitary 

70  553 


554 

Fair  in  Boston,  the  net  proceeds  of  which  were  nearly  one  hun 
dred  and  forty-six  thousand  dollars. 

The  first  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee,  was  Mrs.  D. 
Buck,  and  on  her  resignation  early  in  1864,  Miss  Abby  W.  May, 
an  active  and  efficient  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  from 
the  first  was  chosen  Chairman.  The  rare  executive  ability  dis 
played  by  Miss  May  in  this  position,  and  her  extraordinary  gifts 
and  influence  render  a  brief  sketch  of  her  desirable,  though  her 
own  modest  and  retiring  disposition  would  lead  her  to  depreciate 
her  own  merits,  and  to  declare  that  she  had  done  no  more  than 
the  other  members  of  the  Association.  In  that  coterie  of  gifted 
women,  it  is  not  impossible  that  there  may  have  been  others  who 
could  have  done  as  well,  but  none  could  have  done  better  than  Miss 
May;  just  as  in  our  great  armies,  it  is  not  impossible  that  there 
may  have  been  Major-Generals,  and  perhaps  even  Brigadier-Gen 
erals,  who,  had  they  been  placed  in  command  of  the  armies, 
might  have  accomplished  as  much  as  those  who  did  lead  them  to 
victory.  The  possibilities  of  success,  in  an  untried  leader,  may 
or  may  not  be  great ;  but  those  who  actually  occupy  a  prominent 
position,  must  pay  the  penalty  of  their  prominence,  in  the  pub 
licity  which  follows  it. 

Miss  May  is  a  native  of  Boston,  born  in  1829,  and  educated  in 
the  best  schools  of  her  natal  city.  She  early  gave  indications  of 
the  possession  of  a  vigorous  intellect,  which  was  thoroughly 
trained  and  cultivated.  Her  clear  and  quick  understanding,  her 
strong  good  sense,  active  benevolence,  and  fearlessness  in  avowing 
and  advocating  whatever  she  believed  to  be  true  and  right,  have 
given  her  a  powerful  influence  in  the  wide  circle  of  her  acquaint 
ance.  She  embarked  heart  and  soul  in  the  Anti-slavery  move 
ment  while  yet  quite  young,  and  has  rendered  valuable  services 
to  that  cause. 

At  the  very  commencement  of  the  war,  she  gave  herself  most 
heartily  to  the  work  of  relieving  the  sufferings  of  the  soldiers 
from  sickness  or  wounds ;  laboring  with  great  efficiency  in  the 


NEW    ENGLAND    WOMEX's   AUXILIARY   ASSOCIATION.       555 

organization  and  extension  of  the  New  England  Women's  Aux 
iliary  Association,  and  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1862,  going 
into  the  Hospital  Transport  Service  of  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
where  her  labors  were  arduous,  but  accomplished  great  good. 
After  her  return,  she  was  prevailed  upon  to  take  the  Chairman 
ship  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Association,  and  repre 
sented  it  at  Washington,  at  the  meeting  of  the  delegates  from  the 
Branches  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Her  executive  ability 
was  signally  manifested  in  her  management  of  the  affairs  of  the 
Association,  in  her  rapid  and  accurate  dispatch  of  business,  her 
prompt  and  unerring  judgment  on  all  difficult  questions,  her 
great  practical  talent,  and  her  earnest  and  eloquent  appeals  to  the 
auxiliaries.  Yet  fearless  and  daring  as  she  has  ever  been  in  her 
denunciation  of  wrong,  and  her  advocacy  of  right,  and  extraor 
dinary  as  are  the  abilities  she  has  displayed  in  the  management 
of  an  enterprise  for  which  few  men  would  have  been  competent, 
the  greatest  charm  of  her  character  is  her  unaffected  modesty, 
and  disposition  to  esteem  others  better  than  herself.  To  her 
friends  she  declared  that  she  had  made  no  sacrifices  in  the  work, 
none  really  worthy  of  the  name — while  there  were  abundance  of 
women  who  had,  but  who  were  and  must  remain  nameless  and 
unknown.  What  she  had  done  had  been  done  from  inclination 
and  a  desire  to  serve  and  be  useful  in  her  day,  and  in  the  great 
struggle,  and  had  been  a  recreation  and  enjoyment. 

To  a  lady  friend  who  sought  to  win  from  her  some  incidents 
of  her  labors  for  publication,  she  wrote : 

"  The  work  in  New  England  has  been  conducted  with  so  much 
simplicity,  and  universal  co-operation,  that  there  have  been  no 
persons  especially  prominent  in  it.  Rich  and  poor,  wise  and 
simple,  cultivated  and  ignorant,  all — people  of  all  descriptions, 
all  orders  of  taste,  every  variety  of  habit,  condition,  and  circum 
stances,  joined  hands  heartily  in  the  beginning,  and  have  worked 
together  as  equals  in  every  respect.  There  has  been  no  chance 
for  individual  prominence.  Each  one  had  some  power  or  quality 


556 

desirable  in  the  great  work ;  and  she  gave  what  she  could.  In 
one  instance,  it  was  talent,  in  another,  money, — in  another,  judg 
ment, — in  another,  time, — and  so  on.  Where  all  gifts  were 
needed,  it  would  be  impossible  to  say  what  would  make  any  per 
son  prominent,  with  this  one  exception.  It  was  necessary  that 
some  one  should  be  at  the  head  of  the  work :  and  this  place  it 
was  my  blessed  privilege  to  fill.  But  it  was  only  an  accidental 
prominence ;  and  I  should  regret  more  than  I  can  express  to  you, 
to  have  this  accident  of  position  single  me  out  in  any  such  man 
ner  as  you  propose ;  from  the  able,  devoted,  glorious  women  all 
about  me,  whose  sacrifices,  and  faithfulness,  and  nobleness,  I  can 
hardly  conceive  of,  much  less  speak  of  and  never  approach  to. 

"  As  far  as  I  personally  am  concerned,  I  would  rather  your  no 
tice  of  our  part  of  the  work  should  be  of  e  New  England  wo 
men.7  We  shared  the  privileges  of  the  work, — not  always 
equally,  that  would  be  impossible.  But  we  stood  side  by  side — 
through  it  all,  as  New  England  women ;  and  if  we  are  to  be 
remembered  hereafter,  it  ought  to  be  under  that  same  good  old 
title,  and  in  one  goodly  company. 

"  When  I  begin  to  think  of  individual  cases,  I  grow  full  of  ad 
miration,  and  wish  I  could  tell  you  of  many  a  special  woman ; 
but  the  number  soon  becomes  appalling, — your  book  would  be 
overrun,  and  all,  or  most  of  those  who  would  have  been  omit 
ted,  might  well  have  been  there  too." 

In  the  same  tone  of  generous  appreciation  of  the  labors  of 
others,  and  desire  that  due  honor  should  be  bestowed  upon  all,  Miss 
May,  in  her  final  Eeport  of  the  New  England  Women's  Auxili 
ary  Association,  gives  utterance  to  the  thanks  of  the  Executive 
Committee  to  its  fellow-workers : 

"We  wish  we  could  speak  of  all  the  elements  that  have  con 
spired  to  our  success  in  New  England;  but  they  are  too  nume 
rous.  From  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  Government 
here,  who  remitted  the  duties  upon  soldiers'  garments  sent  to  us 
from  Nova  Scotia,  down  to  the  little  child,  diligently  sewing 


NEW    ENGLAND    WOMEN'S   AUXILIAKY   ASSOCIATION.       557 

with  tiny  fingers  upon  the  soldier's  comfort-bag,  the  co-operation 
has  been  almost  universal.  Churches,  of  all  denominations,  have 
exerted  their  influence  for  us;  many  schools  have  made  special 
efforts  in  our  behalf;  the  directors  of  railroads,  express  companies, 
telegraphs,  and  newspapers,  and  gentlemen  of  the  business  firms 
with  whom  we  have  dealt,  have  befriended  us  most  liberally; 
and  private  individuals,  of  all  ages,  sexes,  colors,  and  conditions, 
have  aided  us  in  ways  that  we  cannot  enumerate,  that  no  one  really 
knows  but  themselves.  They  do  not  seek  our  thanks,  but  we 
would  like  to  offer  them.  Their  service  has  been  for  the  soldiers' 
sake;  but  the  way  in  which  they  have  rendered  it  has  made  us 
personally  their  debtors,  beyond  the  power  of  words  to  express." 

One  of  the  most  efficient  auxiliaries  of  the  New  England 
Women's  Auxiliary  Association,  from  the  thoroughly  loyal  spirit 
it  manifested,  and  the  persistent  and  patient  labor  which  charac 
terized  its  course  was  the  Boston  Sewing  Circle,  an  organization 
started  in  November,  1862,  and  which  numbered  thenceforward 
to  the  end  of  the  war  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred 
workers.  This  Sewing  Circle  raised  twenty-one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  dollars  in  money,  (about  four  thou 
sand  dollars  of  it  for  the  Refugees  in  Western  Tennessee),  and 
made  up  twenty-one  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  arti 
cles  of  clothing,  a  large  part  of  them  of  flannel,  but  including  also 
shirts,  drawers,  etc.,  of  cotton. 

Its  officers  from  first  to  last  were  Mrs.  George  Ticknor,  Presi 
dent;  Miss  Ira  E.  Loring,  Vice-President;  Mrs.  G.  H.  Shaw, 
Secretary;  Mrs.  Martin  Brimmer,  Treasurer.  A  part  of  these 
ladies,  together  with  some  others  had  for  more  than  a  year  pre 
vious  been  engaged  in  similar  labors,  at  first  in  behalf  of  the 
Second  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  Infantry,  and  afterward  for 
other  soldiers.  This  organization  of  which  Mrs.  George  Ticknor 
was  President,  Miss  Ticknor,  Secretary,  and  Mrs.  W.  B.  Rogers, 
Treasurer,  raised  three  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-four  dol 
lars  in  money,  and  sent  to  the  army  four  thousand  nine  hundred 


558  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAB. 

and  sixty-nine  articles  of  clothing  of  which  one-third  were  of 
flannel. 

Another  "Boston  notion,"  and  a  very  excellent  notion  it  was, 
was  the  organization  of  the  Ladies'  Industrial  Aid  Association, 
which  we  believe,  but  are  not  certain,  was  in  some  sort  an  auxi 
liary  of  the  New  England  Women's  Auxiliary  Association.  This 
society  was  formed  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  and  proposed  first 
to  furnish  well  made  clothing  to  the  soldiers,  and  second  to  give 
employment  to  their  families,  though  it  was  not  confined  to  these, 
but  furnished  work  also  to  some  extent  to  poor  widows  with 
young  children,  who  had  no  near  relatives  in  the  army.  In  this 
enterprise  were  enlisted  a  large  number  of  ladies  of  education, 
refinement,  and  high  social  position.  During  four  successive 
winters,  they  carried  on  their  philanthropic  work,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  of  them  being  employed  during  most  of  the  forenoons 
of  each  week,  in  preparing  the  garments  for  the  sewing  women, 
or  in  the  thorough  and  careful  inspection  of  those  which  were 
finished.  From  nine  hundred  to  one  thousand  women  were 
constantly  supplied  with  work,  and  received  in  addition  to  the 
contract  prices,  (the  ladies  performing  their  labor  without  com 
pensation)  additional  payment,  derived  from  donations  for  increas 
ing  their  remuneration.  The  number  of  garments  (mostly  shirts 
and  drawers)  made  by  the  employe's  of  this  association  in  the 
four  years,  was  three  hundred  and  forty-six  thousand  seven  hun 
dred  and  fifteen,  and  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  thirty-three 
dollars  and  seventy-eight  cents  raised  by  donation,  was  paid  as 
additional  wages  to  the  workwomen.  The  association  of  these 
poor  women  for  so  long  a  period  with  ladies  of  cultivation  and 
refinement,  under  circumstances  in  which  they  could  return  a  fair 
equivalent  for  the  money  received,  and  hence  were  not  in  the 
position  of  applicants  for  charity,  could  not  fail  to  be  elevating 
and  improving,  while  the  ladies  themselves  learned  the  lesson 
that  as  pure  and  holy  a  patriotism  inspired  the  hearts  of  the 
humble  and  lowly,  as  was  to  be  found  among  the  gifted  and 


cultivated.  We  regret  that  we  cannot  give  the  names  of  the 
ladies  who  initiated  and  sustained  this  movement.  Many  of 
them  were  conspicuous  in  other  works  of  patriotism  and  benevo 
lence  during  the  war,  and  some  found  scope  for  their  earnest 
devotion  to  the  cause  in  camp  and  hospital,  and  some  gave  vent 
to  their  patriotic  emotion  in  battle  hymns  which  will  live  through 
all  coming  time.  Of  these  as  of  thousands  of  others  in  all  the 
departments  of  philanthropy  connected  with  the  great  struggle, 
it  shall  be  said,  "  They  have  done  what  they  could." 


NORTHWESTERN    SANITARY    COM 
MISSION. 


HEN  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  was  first 
organized,  though  its  members  and  officers  had  but 
little  idea  of  the  vast  influence  it  was  destined  to  exert 
on  the  labors  which  were  before  it,  they  wisely  resolved 
to  make  it  a  National  affair,  and  accordingly  selected  some  of 
their  corporate  members  from  the  large  cities  of  the  West.  The 
Honorable  Mark  Skinner,  and  subsequently  E.  B.  McCagg,  Esq., 
and  E.  W.  Blatchford,  were  chosen  as  the  associate  members  of 
the  Commission  for  Chicago.  The  Commission  expected  much 
from  the  Northwest,  both  from  its  earnest  patriotism,  and  its  large- 
handed  liberality.  Its  selection  of  associates  was  eminently  judi 
cious,  and  these  very  soon  after  their  election,  undertook  the 
establishment  of  a  branch  Commission  for  collecting  and  forward 
ing  supplies,  and  more  effectively  organizing  the  liberality  of  the 
Northwest,  that  its  rills  and  streams  of  beneficence,  concen 
trated  in  the  great  city  of  the  Lakes,  might  flow  thence  in  a 
mighty  stream  to  the  armies  of  the  West.  Public  meetings  were 
held,  a  branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  with  its 
rooms,  its  auxiliaries  and  its  machinery  of  collection  and  distribu 
tion  put  in  operation,  and  the  office  management  at  first  entrusted 
to  that  devoted  and  faithful  worker  in  the  Sanitary  cause,  Mrs. 
Eliza  Porter.  The  work  grew  in  extent  as  active  operations  were 
undertaken  in  our  armies,  and  early  in  1862,  the  associates  finding 
Mrs.  Porter  desirous  of  joining  her  husband  in  ministrations  of 

660 


NORTH  WESTERN   SANITARY   COMMISSION.  561 

mercy  at  the  front,  entrusted  the  charge  of  the  active  labors  of 
the  Commission,  its  correspondence,  the  organization  of  auxiliary 
aid  societies,  the  issuing  of  appeals  for  money  and  supplies,  the 
forwarding  of  stores,  the  employment  and  location  of  women 
nurses,  and  the  other  multifarious  duties  of  so  extensive  an  institu 
tion,  to  two  ladies  of  Chicago,  ladies  who  had  both  given  practical 
evidence  of  their  patriotism  and  activity  in  the  cause, — Mrs.  A. 
H.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  M.  A.  Livermore.  The  selection  was  wisely 
made.  No  more  earnest  workers  were  found  in  any  department 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission's  field,  and  their  eloquence  of  pen  and 
voice,  the  magnetism  of  their  personal  presence,  their  terse  and 
vigorously  written  circulars  appealing  for  general  or  special  sup 
plies,  their  projection  and  management  of  two  great  sanitary  fairs, 
and  their  unwearied  efforts  to  save  the  western  armies  from  the 
fearful  perils  of  scurvy,  entitle  them  to  especial  prominence  in  our 
record  of  noble  and  patriotic  women.  The  amount  of  money  and 
supplies  sent  from  this  branch,  collected  from  its  thousand  auxili 
aries  and  its  two  great  fairs,  has  not  been  up  to  this  time,  defini 
tively  estimated,  but  it  is  known  to  have  exceeded  one  million  of 
dollars. 

This  record  of  the  labors  of  these  ladies  during  the  war  would 
be  incomplete  without  allusion  to  the  fact  that  they  were  the 
prime  movers  in  the  establishment  of  a  Soldiers'  Home,  in  Chi 
cago,  and  were,  until  after  the  war  ended,  actively  identified  with 
it.  They  early  foresaw  that  this  temporary  resting-place,  which 
became  like  "the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land"  to 
tens  of  thousands  of  soldiers,  going  to  and  returning  from  the 
camp,  and  hospital,  and  battle-field,  would  eventually  crystallize 
into  a  permanent  home  for  the  disabled  and  indigent  of  Illinois' 
brave  men — and  in  all  their  calculations  for  it,  they  took  its  grand 
future  into  account.  That  future  which  they  foresaw,  has  become 
a  verity,  and  nowhere  in  the  United  States  is  there  a  pleasanter, 
or  more  convenient,  or  more  generously  supported  Soldiers'  Home 

than  in  Chicago,  standing  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan. 
71 


MRS.   A.   H.   HOGE. 


ERHAPS  among  all  who  have  labored  for  the  sol 
dier,  during  the  late  war,  among  the  women  of  our 
country,  no  name  is  better  known  that  of  Mrs.  A.  H. 
Hoge,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  From  the  beginning 
until  the  successful  close  of  the  war,  alike  cheerful,  ardent,  and 
reliant,  in  its  darkest,  as  in  its  brightest  days,  Mrs.  Hoge  dedi 
cated  to  the  service  of  her  country  and  its  defenders,  all  that  she 
had  to  bestow,  and  became  widely  known  all  over  the  vast  sphere 
of  her  operations,  as  one  of  the  most  faithful  and  tireless  of 
workers ;  wise  in  council,  strong  in  judgment,  earnest  in  action. 

Mrs.  Hoge  is  a  native  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  was 
the  daughter  of  George  D.  Blaikie,  Esq.,  an  East  India  shipping 
merchant — aa  man  of  spotless  character,  and  exalted  reputation, 
whose  name  is  held  in  reverence  by  many  still  living  there." 

Mrs.  Hoge  was  educated  at  the  celebrated  seminary  of  John 
Brewer,  A.  M.,  (a  graduate  of  Harvard  University)  who  founded 
the  first  classical  school  for  young  ladies  in  Philadelphia,  and 
which  was  distinguished  from  all  others,  by  the  name  of  the 
Young  Ladies7  College.  She  graduated  with  the  first  rank  in 
her  class,  and  afterward  devoting  much  attention,  with  the 
advantage  of  the  best  instruction,  to  music,  and  other  accom 
plishments,  she  soon  excelled  in  the  former.  At  an  early  age  she 
became  a  member  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church,  with 
which  she  still  retains  her  connection,  her  husband  being  a  ruling 
elder  in  the  same  church. 

562 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  563 

In  her  twentieth  year  she  was  married  to  Mr.  A.  H.  Hoge,  a 
merchant  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  where  she  resided  fourteen 
years.  At  the  end  of  that  period  she  removed  to  Chicago,  Illi 
nois,  where  she  has  since  dwelt. 

Mrs.  Hoge  has  been  the  mother  of  thirteen  children,  five  of 
whom  have  passed  awray  before  her.  One  of  these,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Hoge,  was  a  young  man  of  rare  endowments  and  prom 
ise. 

As  before  stated,  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  Mrs. 
Hoge  identified  herself  with  the  interests  of  her  country.  Two 
of  her  sons  immediately  entered  the  army,  and  she  at  once  com 
menced  her  unwearied  personal  services  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers. 

At  first  she  entered  only  into  that  work  of  supply  in  which  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  loyal  women  of  the  North  labored  more  or 
less  continuously  all  through  the  war.  But  the  first  public  act  of 
her  life  as  a  Sanitary  Agent,  was  to  visit,  at  the  request  of  the 
Chicago  branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  the 
hospitals  at  Cairo,  Mound  City  and  St.  Louis. 

Of  her  visit  to  one  of  these  hospitals  she  subsequently  related 
the  following  incidents: 

"The  first  great  hospital  I  visited  was  Mound  City,  twelve 
miles  from  Cairo.  It  contained  twelve  hundred  beds,  furnished 
with  dainty  sheets,  and  pillows  and  shirts,  from  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  and  ornamented  with  boughs  of  fresh  apple  blos 
soms,  placed  there  by  tender  female  nurses  to  refresh  the  languid 
frames  of  their  mangled  inmates.  As  I  took  my  slow  and  solemn 
walk  through  this  congregation  of  suffering  humanity,  I  was 
arrested  by  the  bright  blue  eyes,  and  pale  but  dimpled  cheek,  of 
a  boy  of  nineteen  summers.  I  perceived  he  was  bandaged  like  a 
mummy,  and  could  not  move  a  limb;  but  still  he  smiled.  The 
nurse  who  accompanied  me  said,  '  We  call  this  boy  our  miracle. 
Five  weeks  ago,  he  was  shot  down  at  Donelson;  both  legs  and 
arms  shattered.  To-day,  with  great  care,  he  has  been  turned  for 


564  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  first  time,  and  never  a  murmur  has  escaped  his  lips,  but  grate 
ful  words  and  pleasant  looks  have  cheered  us.'  Said  I  to  the 
smiling  boy,  some  absent  mother's  pride,  '  How  long  did  you  lie 
on  the  field  after  being  shot?7  'From  Saturday  morning  till  Sun 
day  evening/  he  replied,  'and  then  I  was  chopped  out,  for  I  had 
frozen  feet.'  'How  did  it  happen  that  you  were  left  so  long?' 
'Why,  you  see,'  said  he,  'they  couldn't  stop  to  bother  with  us, 
because  they  had  to  take  the  fort.'  'But,'  said  I,  'did  you  not  feel 
'twas  cruel  to  leave  you  to  suffer  so  long?'  'Of  course  not!  how 
could  they  help  it?  They  had  to  take  the  fort ,  and  when  they  did, 
we  forgot  our  sufferings,  and  all  over  the  battle-field  went  up 
cheers  from  the  wounded,  even  from  the  dying.  Men  that  had 
but  one  arm  raised  that,  and  voices  so  weak  that  they  sounded 
like  children's,  helped  to  swell  the  sound.'  '  Did  you  suffer  much  ?' 
His  brow  contracted,  as  he  said,  'I  don't  like  to  think  of  that; 
but  never  mind,  the  doctor  tells  me  I  won't  lose  an  arm  or  a  leg, 
and  I'm  going  back  to  have  another  chance  at  them.  There's 
one  thing  I  can't  forget  though,"  said  he,  as  his  sunny  brow  grew 
dark,  'Jem  and  I  (nodding  at  the  boy  in  the  adjoining  cot)  lived 
on  our  father's  neighboring  farms  in  Illinois;  we  stood  beside 
each  other  and  fell  together.  As  he  knows,  we  saw  fearful  sights 
that  day.  We  saw  poor  wounded  boys  stripped  of  their  clothing. 
They  cut  our's  off,  when  every  movement  was  torture.  When 
some  resisted,  they  were  pinned  to  the  earth  with  bayonets,  and 
left  writhing  like  worms,  to  die  by  inches.  I  can't  forgive  the 
devils  for  that.'  '  I  fear  you've  got  more  than  you  bargained  for.' 
'  Not  a  bit  of  it ;  we  went  in  for  better  or  worse,  and  if  we  got 
worse,  we  must  not  complain.'  Thus  talked  the  beardless  boy, 
nine  months  only  from  his  mother's  wing.  As  I  spoke,  a  moan, 
a  rare  sound  in  a  hospital,  fell  on  my  ear.  I  turned,  and  saw  a 
French  boy  quivering  with  agony  and  crying  for  help.  Alas!  he 
had  been  wounded,  driven  several  miles  in  an  ambulance,  with 
his  feet  projecting,  had  them  frightfully  frozen,  and  the  surgeon 
had  just  decided  the  discolored,  useless  members  must  be  ampu- 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  565 

tated,  and  the  poor  boy  was  begging  for  the  operation.  Beside 
him,  lay  a  stalwart  man,  with  fine  face,  the  fresh  blood  staining 
his  bandages,  his  dark,  damp  hair  clustering  round  his  marble 
forehead.  He  extended  his  hand  feebly  and  essayed  to  speak,  as 
I  bent  over  him,  but  speech  had  failed  him.  He  was  just  brought 
in  from  a  gunboat,  where  he  had  been  struck  with  a  piece  of  shell, 
and  was  slipping  silently  but  surely  into  eternity.  Two  days 
afterward  I  visited  Jefferson  Barracks  Hospital.  In  passing 
through  the  wards,  I  noticed  a  woman  seated  beside  the  cot  of  a 
youth,  apparently  dying.  He  was  insensible  to  all  around;  she 
seemed  no  less  so.  Her  face  was  bronzed  and  deeply  lined  with 
care  and  suffering.  Her  eyes  were  bent  on  the  ground,  her  arms 
folded,  her  features  rigid  as  marble.  I  stood  beside  her,  but  she 
did  not  notice  me.  I  laid  my  hand  upon  her  shoulder,  but  she 
heeded  me  not.  I  said  'Is  this  young  man  a  relative  of  yours?' 
No  answer  came.  e Can't  I  help  you?'  With  a  sudden  start  that 
electrified  me,  her  dry  eyes  almost  starting  from  the  sockets  and 
her  voice  husky  with  agony,  she  said,  pointing  her  attenuated 
finger  at  the  senseless  boy, '  He  is  the  last  of  seven  sons — six  have 
died  in  the  army,  and  the  doctor  says  he  must  die  to-night.7  The 
flash  of  life  passed  from  her  face  as  suddenly  as  it  came,  her  arms 
folded  over  her  breast,  she  sank  in  her  chair,  and  became  as  before, 
the  rigid  impersonation  of  agony.  As  I  passed  through  another 
hospital  ward,  I  noticed  a  man  whose  dejected  figure  said  plainly, 
i  he  had  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  to  die.'  His  limb  had  been 
amputated,  and  he  had  just  been  told  his  doom.  Human  nature 
rebelled.  He  cried  out,  'I  am  willing  to  die,  if  I  could  but  see 
my  wife  and  children  once  more.'  In  the  silence  that  followed 
this  burst  of  agony,  the  low  voice  of  a  noble  woman,  who  gave 
her  time  and  abundant  means  to  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers, 
was  heard  in  prayer  for  him.  The  divine  influence  overcame  his 
struggling  heart,  and  as  she  concluded,  he  said,  'Thy  will,  O  God, 
be  done!'  "Tis  a  privilege,  even  thus,  to  die  for  one's  country.' 


566 

Before  the  midnight  hour  he  was  at  rest.  The  vacant  bed  told 
the  story  next  morning." 

The  object  of  these  visits  was  to  examine  those  hospitals  which 
were  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  Branch,  and  report 
their  condition,  also  to  investigate  the  excellent  mode  of  working 
of  the  finely  conducted,  and  at  that  time  numerous  hospitals  in 
St.  Louis.  This  report  was  made  and  acted  upon,  and  was  the 
means  of  introducing  decided  and  much  needed  reforms  into  simi 
lar  institutions. 

The  value  of  Mrs.  Hoge's  counsel,  and  the  fruits  of  her  great 
experience  of  life  were  generally  acknowledged.  In  the  several 
councils  of  women  held  in  Washington,  she  took  a  prominent  part, 
and  was  always  listened  to  with  the  greatest  respect  and  attention 
— not  by  any  means  lessened  after  her  wide  relations  with  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  her  special  experience  of  its  work,  had 
become  known  in  the  following  years. 

Mrs.  Hoge  was  accompanied  to  Washington,  when  attending 
the  Women's  Council  in  1862,  by  her  friend  and  fellow-laborer, 
Mrs.  M.  A.  Livermore,  of  Chicago.  After  the  return  of  these 
ladies  they  immediately  commenced  the  organization  of  the  North 
west  for  sanitary  labor,  being  appointed  agents  of  the  Northwestern 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  devoting  their  entire  time  to  this 
work. 

They  opened  a  correspondence  with  leading  women  in  all  the 
cities  and  prominent  towns  of  the  Northwest.  They  prepared 
and  circulated  great  numbers  of  circulars,  relating  to  the  mode 
and  necessity  of  the  concentrated  efforts  of  the  Aid  Societies,  and 
they  visited  in  person  very  many  towns  and  large  villages,  call 
ing  together  audiences  of  women,  and  telling  them  of  the  hard 
ships,  sufferings  and  heroism  of  the  soldiers,  which  they  had 
themselves  witnessed,  and  the  pressing  needs  of  these  men,  which 
were  to  be  met  by  the  supplies  contributed  by,  and  the  work  of 
loyal  women  of  the  North.  They  thus  stimulated  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  women  to  the  highest  point,  greatly  increased  the  number 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  567 

of  Aid  Societies,  and  taught  them  how,  by  systematizing  their 
efforts,  they  could  render  the  largest  amount  of  assistance,  as  well 
as  the  most  important,  to  the  objects  of  the  Sanitary  Commis 
sion. 

The  eloquence  and  pathos  of  these  appeals  has  never  been  sur 
passed;  and  it  is  no  matter  of  wonder  that  they  should  have 
opened  the  hearts  and  purses  of  so  many  thousands  of  the  lis 
teners.  "But  for  these  noble  warriors,"  Mrs.  Hoge  would  say, 
"  who  have  stood  a  living  wall  between  us  and  destruction,  where 
would  have  been  our  schools,  our  colleges,  our  churches,  our  pro 
perty,  our  government,  our  lives?  Southern  soil  has  been  watered 
with  their  blood,  the  Mississippi  fringed  with  their  graves,  meas 
ured  by  acres  instead  of  numbers.  The  shadow  of  death  has  passed 
over  almost  every  household,  and  left  desolate  hearth-stones  and 
vacant  chairs.  Thousands  of  mothers,  wives  and  sisters  at  home 
have  died  and  made  no  sign,  while  their  loved  ones  have  been 
hidden  in  Southern  hospitals,  prisons  and  graves — the  separation, 
thank  God,  is  short,  the  union  eternal.  I  have  only  a  simple 
story  of  these  martyred  heroes  to  tell  you.  I  have  been  privileged 
to  visit  a  hundred  thousand  of  them  in  hospitals;  meekly  and 
cheerfully  lying  there,  that  you  and  I  may  be  enabled  to  meet 
herej  in  peace  and  comfort  to-day. 

"  Could  I,  by  the  touch  of  a  magician's  wand,  pass  before  you 
in  solemn  review,  this  army  of  sufferers,  you  would  say  a  tithe 
cannot  be  told." 

And  then  with  simple  and  effective  pathos  she  would  proceed 
to  tell  of  incidents  which  she  had  witnessed,  so  touching,  that  long 
ere  she  had  concluded  her  entire  audience  would  be  in  tears. 

By  two  years  of  earnest  and  constant  labor  in  this  field,  these 
ladies  succeeded  in  adding  to  the  packages  sent  to  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  fifty  thousand,  mostly  gifts  directly  from  the  Aid 
Societies,  but  in  part  purchased  with  money  given.  In  addition 
to  this,  over  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  came  into  the  treasury 
through  their  efforts. 


568 

Early  in  1863,  Mrs.  Hoge,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Colt  of  Mil 
waukee,  at  the  request  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  left  Chicago  for 
Vicksburg,  with  a  large  quantity  of  sanitary  stores.  The  defeat 
of  Sherman  in  his  assault  upon  that  city,  had  just  taken  place, 
and  there  was  great  want  and  suffering  in  the  army.  The  boat 
upon  which  these  ladies  were  traveling,  was  however  seized  as  a 
military  transport  at  Columbus,  and  pressed  into  the  fleet  of 
General  Gorman,  which  was  just  starting  for  the  forts  at  the 
mouth  of  the  White  River. 

General  Fisk,  whose  headquarters  were  upon  the  same  boat, 
accorded  to  these  ladies  the  best  accommodations,  and  every 
facility  for  carrying  out  their  work,  which  proved  to  be  greatly 
needed.  Their  stores  were  found  to  be  almost  the  only  ones  in  the 
fleet,  composed  of  thirty  steamers  filled  with  fresh  troops,  whose 
ranks  were  soon  thinned  by  sickness,  consequent  upon  the  expo 
sures  and  fatigues  of  the  campaign. 

Their  boat  became  a  refuge  for  the  sick  of  General  Fisk's 
brigade,  to  his  honor  be  it  said,  and  these  ladies  had  the  privilege 
of  nursing  hundreds  of  men  during  this  expedition,  and  un 
doubtedly  saved  many  valuable  lives. 

Early  in  the  following  spring,  and  only  ten  days  after  her 
return  to  Chicago,  from  the  expedition  mentioned  above,  Mrs. 
Hoge  was  again  summoned  to  Vicksburg,  opposite  which,  at 
Young's  Point,  the  army  under  General  Grant  was  lying  and 
engaged,  among  other  operations  against  this  celebrated  strong 
hold,  in  the  attempt  to  turn  the  course  of  the  river  into  a  canal 
dug  across  the  point.  Scurvy  was  prevailing  to  a  very  considera 
ble  extent  among  the  men,  who  were  greatly  in  need  of  the  sup 
plies  which  accompanied  her.  Here  she  remained  two  weeks, 
and  had  the  pleasure  of  distributing  these  supplies,  and  witness 
ing  much  benefit  from  their  use.  Her  headquarters  were  upon 
the  sanitary  boat,  Silver  Wave,  and  she  received  constant  support 
and  aid  from  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  from  Admiral 
Porter,  who  placed  a  tug  boat  at  her  disposal,  in  order  that  she 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  569 

might  visii  the  camps  and  hospitals  which  were  totally  inaccessi 
ble  in  any  other  way,  owing  to  the  impassable  character  of  the 
roads  during  the  rainy  season.  Having  made  a  tour  of  all  the 
hospitals,  and  ascertained  the  condition  of  the  sick,  and  of  the 
army  generally,  she  returned  to  the  North,  and  reported  to  the 
Sanitary  Commission  the  extent  of  that  insidious  army  foe,  the 
scurvy.  They  determined  to  act  promptly  and  vigorously.  Mrs. 
Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore,  as  representatives  of  the  Northwestern 
Sanitary  Commission,  by  unremitting  exertions,  through  the 
press  and  by  circulars,  and  aided  by  members  of  the  Commission, 
and  by  the  noble  Board  of  Trade  of  Chicago,  succeeded  in  col 
lecting,  and  in  sending  to  the  army,  in  the  course  of  three  weeks, 
over  one  thousand  bushels  of  potatoes  and  onions,  which  reached 
them,  were  apportioned  to  them,  and  proved,  as  was  anticipated,  and 
has  been  universally  acknowledged,  the  salvation  of  the  troops. 

Again,  in  the  following  June,  on  the  invitation  of  General 
Fuller,  Adjutant-General  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  Mrs.  Hoge 
visited  Yicksburg,  on  the  Steamer  City  of  Alton,  which  was  de 
spatched  by  Governor  Yates,  to  bring  home  the  sick  and  wounded 
Illinois  soldiers.  She  remained  till  shortly  before  the  surrender, 
which  took  place  on  the  fourth  of  July,  and  during  this  time 
visited  the  entire  circle  of  Hospitals,  as  well  as  the  rifle-pits, 
where  she  witnessed  scenes  of  thrilling  interest,  and  instances  of 
endurance  and  heroism  beyond  the  power  of  pen  to  describe. 
She  thus  describes  some  of  the  incidents  of  this  visit : 
"  The  long  and  weary  siege  of  Vicksburg,  had  continued  many 
months  previous  to  the  terrific  assaults  of  our  brave  army  on  the 
fortifications  in  the  rear  of  that  rebel  stronghold.  On  the  19th 
and  22d  of  May,  were  made  those  furious  attacks,  up  steep  ac 
clivities,  in  the  teeth  of  bristling  fortifications,  long  lines  of  rifle- 
pits,  and  sharp-shooters  who  fringed  the  hill-tops,  and  poured 
their  murderous  fire  into  our  advancing  ranks.  It  would  seem 
impossible  that  men  could  stand,  much  less  advance,  under  such 
a  galling  fire.  They  were  mowed  down  as  wheat  before  the  sickle, 

72 


570 

but  they  faltered  not.  The  vacant  places  of  the  fallen  were  in 
stantly  filled,  and  inch  by  inch  they  gained  the  heights  of  Vicks- 
burg.  When  the  precipice  was  too  steep  for  the  horses  to  draw 
up  the  artillery,  our  brave  boys  did  the  work  themselves,  and 
then  fought  and  conquered.  When  they  had  gained  the  topmost 
line  of  rifle-pits,  they  entered  in  and  took  possession ;  and  when 
I  made  my  last  visit  to  the  Army  of  the  Mississippi,  there  they  were 
ensconced  as  conies  in  the  rock,  enduring  the  heat  of  a  vertical 
sun,  and  crouching,  like  beasts  of  prey,  to  escape  the  rebel  bul 
lets  from  the  earthworks,  almost  within  touching  distance.  The 
fierce  and  bloody  struggle  had  filled  long  lines  of  field-hospitals 
with  mangled  victims,  whose  sufferings  were  soothed  and  relieved 
beyond  what  I  could  have  conceived  possible,  and  it  rejoiced  my 
heart  to  see  there  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  the  Sanitary  Com 
mission.  The  main  body  of  the  army  lay  encamped  in  the  val 
leys,  at  the  foot  of  the  rifle-pits,  and  spread  its  lines  in  a  semi 
circle  to  a  distance  of  fourteen  miles.  The  health  of  the  army 
was  perfect,  its  spirit  jubilant.  They  talked  of  the  rebels  as 
prisoners,  as  though  they  were  guarding  them,  and  answered 
questions  implying  doubt  of  success,  with  a  scornful  laugh,  say 
ing,  ( Why,  the  boys  in  the  rear  could  whip  Johnston,  and  we  not 
know  it;  and  we  could  take  Vicksburg  if  we  chose,  and  not  dis 
turb  them.'  Each  regiment,  if  not  each  man,  felt  competent  for 
the  work.  One  glorious  day  in  June,  accompanied  by  an  officer 
of  the  8th  Missouri,  I  set  out  for  the  rifle-pits.  When  I  reached 
them,  I  found  the  heat  stifling;  and  as  I  bent  to  avoid  the  whiz 
zing  minies,  and  the  falling  branches  of  the  trees,  cut  off  by  an 
occasional  shell,  I  felt  that  war  was  a  terrible  reality.  The  in 
tense  excitement  of  the  scene,  the  manly,  cheerful  bearing  of  the 
veterans,  the  booming  of  the  cannon  from  the  battlements,  and 
the  heavy  mortars  that  were  ever  and  anon  throwing  their  huge 
iron  balls  into  Vicksburg,  and  the  picturesque  panorama  of  the 
army  encamped  below,  obliterated  all  sense  of  personal  danger  or 
fatigue.  After  a  friendly  talk  with  the  men  in  the  extreme  front, 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  571 

and  a  peep  again  and  again  through  the  loop-holes,  watched  and 
fired  upon  continually,  by  the  wary  foe,  I  descended  to  the  second 
ledge,  where  the  sound  of  music  reached  us.  We  followed  it 
quickly,  and  in  a  few  moments  stood  behind  a  rude  litter  of 
boughs,  on  which  lay  a  gray-haired  soldier,  face  downward,  with 
a  comrade  on  either  side.  They  did  not  perceive  us,  but  sang  on 
the  closing  line  of  the  verse : 

*  Come  humble  sinner  in  whose  breast 

A  thousand  thoughts  revolve ; 
Come  with  thy  sins  and  fears  oppressed, 
And  make  this  last  resolve.' 

I  joined  in  the  second  verse ; 

Til  go  to  Jesus,  though  my  sins 

Have  like  a  mountain  rose, 
I  know  His  courts,  I'll  enter  in, 
"Whatever  may  oppose.' 

In  an  instant,  each  man  turned  and  would  have  stopped,  but  I 
sang  on  with  moistened  eyes,  and  they  continued.  At  the  close, 
one  burst  out,  '  Why,  ma'am,  where  did  you  come  from  ?  Did 
you  drop  from  heaven  into  these  rifle-pits  ?  You  are  the  first 
lady  we  have  seen  here/  and  then  the  voice  was  choked  with 
tears.  I  said,  'I  have  come  from  your  friends  at  home  to  see 
you,  and  bring  messages  of  love  and  honor.  I  have  come  to 
bring  you  the  comforts  that  we  owe  you,  and  love  to  give.  IVe 
come  to  see  if  you  receive  what  they  send  you/  '  Do  they  think 
so  much  of  us  as  that?  Why,  boys,  we  can  fight  another  year 
on  that,  can't  we?7  'Yes!  yes!7  they  cried,  and  almost  every 
hand  was  raised  to  brush  away  the  tears.  '  Why,  boys/  said  I, 
'  the  women  at  home  don't  think  of  much  else  but  the  soldiers. 
If  they  meet  to  sew,  'tis  for  you ;  if  they  have  a  good  time,  'tis 
to  gather  money  for  the  Sanitary  Commission;  if  they  meet  to 
pray,  'tis  for  the  soldiers;  and  even  the  little  children,  as  they 
kneel  at  their  mother's  knees  to  lisp  their  good-night  prayers,  say, 


572  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

God  bless  the  soldiers/  A  crowd  of  eager  listeners  had  gathered 
from  their  hiding-places,  as  birds  from  the  rocks.  Instead  of 
cheers  as  usual,  I  could  only  hear  an  occasional  sob  and  feel 
solemn  silence.  The  gray-haired  veteran  drew  from  his  breast 
pocket  a  daguerreotype,  and  said,  'Here  are  my  wife  and  daugh 
ters.  I  think  any  man  might  be  proud  of  them,  and  they  all 
work  for  the  soldiers.'  And  then  each  man  drew  forth  the  inev 
itable  daguerreotype,  and  held  it  for  me  to  look  at,  with  pride 
and  affection.  There  were  aged  mothers  and  sober  matrons, 
bright-eyed  maidens  and  laughing  cherubs,  all  carried  next  these 
brave  hearts,  and  cherished  as  life  itself.  Blessed  art!  It  seems 
as  though  it  were  part  of  God's  preparation  work,  for  this  long, 
cruel  war.  These  mute  memorials  of  home  and  its  loved  ones 
have  proved  the  talisman  of  many  a  tempted  heart,  and  the 
solace  of  thousands  of  suffering,  weary  veterans.  I  had  much 
to  do,  and  prepared  to  leave.  I  said,  ' Brave  men,  farewell! 
When  I  go  home,  I'll  tell  them  that  men  that  never  flinch  before 
a  foe,  sing  hymns  of  praise  in  the  rifle-pits  of  Yicksburg.  I'll 
tell  them  that  eyes  that  never  weep  for  their  own  suffering,  over 
flow  at  the  name  of  home  and  the  sight  of  the  pictures  of  their 
wives  and  children.  They'll  feel  more  than  ever  that  such  men 
cannot  be  conquered,  and  that  enough  cannot  be  done  for  them.' 
Three  cheers  for  the  women  at  home,  and  a  grasp  of  multitudes 
of  hard,  honest  hands,  and  I  turned  away  to  visit  other  regi 
ments.  The  officer  who  was  with  me,  grasped  my  hand ; 
'  Madam,'  said  he,  '  promise  me  you'll  visit  my  regiment  to-mor 
row — 'twould  be  worth  a  victory  to  them.  You  don't  know 
what  good  a  lady's  visit  to  the  army  does.  These  men  whom 
you  have  seen  to-day,  will  talk  of  your  visit  for  six  months  to 
come.  Around  the  camp  fires,  in  the  rifle-pits,  in  the  dark 
nights  or  on  the  march,  they  will  repeat  your  words,  describe 
your  looks,  your  voice,  your  size,  your  dress,  and  all  agree  in  one 
respect,  that  you  look  like  an  angel,  and  exactly  like  each  man's 
wife  or  mother.'  Such  reverence  have  our  soldiers  for  upright, 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  573 

tender-hearted  women.  In  the  valley  beneath,  just  having  ex 
changed  the  front  line  of  rifle-pits,  with  the  regiment  now  occu 
pying  it,  encamped  my  son's  regiment.  Its  ranks  had  been  fear 
fully  thinned  by  the  terrible  assaults  of  the  19th  and  21st  of 
May,  as  they  had  formed  the  right  wing  of  the  line  of  battle  on 
that  fearful  day.  I  knew  most  of  them  personally,  and  as  they 
gathered  round  me  and  inquired  after  home  and  friends,  I  could 
but  look  in  sadness  for  many  familiar  faces,  to  be  seen  no  more 
on  earth.  I  said,  '  Boys,  I  was  present  when  your  colors  were 
presented  to  you  by  the  Board  of  Trade.  I  heard  your  colonel 
pledge  himself  that  you  would  bring  those  colors  home  or  cover 
them  with  your  blood,  as  well  as  glory.  I  want  to  see  them,  if 
you  have  them  still,  after  your  many  battles.'  With  great  alac 
rity,  the  man  in  charge  of  them  ran  into  an  adjoining  tent,  and 
brought  them  forth,  carefully  wrapped  in  an  oil-silk  covering. 
He  drew  it  oif  and  flung  the  folds  to  the  breeze.  '  What  does 
this  mean?'  I  said.  'How  soiled  and  tattered,  and  rent  and 
faded  they  look — I  should  not  know  them.'  The  man  who  held 
them  said,  'Why,  ma'am,  'twas  the  smoke  and  balls  did  that.' 
'Ah !  so  it  must  have  been,'  I  said.  e  Well,  you  have  covered 
them  with  glory,  but  how  about  the  blood !'  A  silence  of  a  min 
ute  followed,  and  then  a  low  voice  said,  '  Four  were  shot  down 
holding  them — two  are  dead,  and  two  in  the  hospital.'  'Verily, 
you  have  redeemed  your  pledge,'  I  said  solemnly.  'Now,  boys, 
sing  Rally  round  the  Flag,  Boys !' — and  they  did  sing  it.  As  it 
echoed  through  the  valley,  as  we  stood  within  sight  of  the  green 
sward  that  had  been  reddened  with  the  blood  of  those  that  had 
fought  for  and  upheld  it,  methought  the  angels  might  pause  to 
hear  it,  for  it  was  a  sacred  song — the  song  of  freedom  to  the 
captive,  of  hope  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations.  Since  then,  it 
seems  almost  profane  to  sing  it  with  thoughtlessness  or  frivolity. 
After  a  touching  farewell,  I  stepped  into  the  ambulance,  sur 
rounded  by  a  crowd  of  the  brave  fellows.  The  last  sound  that 
reached  my  ears  was  cheers  for  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  the 


574 

women  at  home.  I  soon  reached  the  regimental  hospital,  where 
lay  the  wounded  color-bearers.  As  I  entered  the  tent,  the  sur 
geon  met  me  and  said,  i  I'm  so  glad  you've  come,  for  R 

has  been  calling  for  you  all  day.'  As  I  took  his  parched,  fever 
ish  hand,  he  said,  'Oh!  take  me  home  to  my  wife  and  little  ones 
to  die.'  There  he  lay,  as  noble  a  specimen  of  vigorous  manhood 
as  I  had  ever  looked  upon.  His  great,  broad  chest  heaved  with 
emotion,  his  dark  eyes  were  brilliant  with  fever,  his  cheeks 
flushed  with  almost  the  hue  of  health,  his  rich  brown  hair  clus 
tering  in  soft  curls  over  his  massive  forehead,  it  was  difficult  to 
realize  that  he  was  entering  the  portals  of  eternity.  I  walked 
across  the  tent  to  the  doctor,  and  asked  if  he  could  go  with  me. 
He  shook  his  head,  and  said  before  midnight  he  would  be  at  rest. 
I  shrank  from  his  eager  gaze  as  I  approached  him.  e  What  does 
he  say?'  he  asked  quickly.  '  You  can't  be  moved.'  The  broad 
chest  rose  and  fell,  his  whole  frame  quivered.  There  was  a  pause 
of  a  few  minutes.  He  spoke  first,  and  said,  'Will  you  take  my 
message  to  her?'  'I  will,'  I  said,  ' if  I  go  five  hundred  miles  to 
do  it.'  *  Take  her  picture  from  under  my  pillow,  and  my  chil 
dren's  also.  Let  me  see  it  once  more.'  As  I  held  them  for  him, 
he  looked  earnestly,  and  then  said;  'Tell  her  not  to  fret  about 
me,  for  we  shall  meet  in  heaven.  Tell  her  'twas  all  right  that  I 
came.  I  don't  regret  it,  and  she  must  not.  Tell  her  to  train 
these  two  little  boys,  that  we  loved  so  well,  to  go  to  heaven  to  us, 
and  tell  her  to  bear  my  loss  like  a  soldier's  wife  and  a  Christian.' 
He  was  exhausted  by  the  effort.  I  sat  beside  him  till  his  con 
sciousness  was  gone,  repeating  God's  precious  promises.  As  the 
sun  went  to  rest  that  night,  he  slept  in  his  Father's  bosom." 

Early  in  January,  1864,  another  Council  of  women  connected 
wih  the  Branch  Commissions,  Aid  Societies,  and  general  work 
of  Supply,  assembled  in  Washington,  and  was  in  session  three 
days.  Mrs.  Hoge,  was  again  a  Delegate,  and  in  relating  the  re 
sults  of  her  now  very  large  experience,  helped  greatly  the  bene 
ficial  results  of  the  Council,  and  harmonized  all  the  views  and 


MRS.  A.  H.  HOGE.  575 

action  of  the  various  branches.  As  before,  she  was  listened  to 
with  deference  and  attention,  and  we  find  her  name  mentioned  in 
the  most  appreciative  manner  in  the  Reports  of  the  meeting.  Her 
remarks  in  regard  to  the  value  of  free  use  of  the  Press,  and  of 
advertising,  in  the  collection  of  supplies  for  the  Army,  stimulated 
the  Commission  to  renewed  effort  in  this  direction,  which  they 
had  partially  abandoned  under  the  censorious  criticism  of  some 
portion  of  the  public,  who  believed  the  money  thus  expended  to 
be  literally  thrown  away.  The  result  was,  instead,  a  very  large 
increase  of  supplies. 

In  the  two  great  Sanitary  Fairs,  which  were  held  in  Chicago, 
the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Hoge  were  unwearied  from  the  inception  of 
the  idea  until  the  close  of  the  successful  realization.  Much  of 
this  success  may  be  directly  traced  to  her — her  practical  talent, 
great  experience  in  influencing  the  minds  and  action  of  others, 
and  sound  judgment,  as  well  as  good  taste,  producing  thus  their 
natural  results.  The  admirable  conduct  of  these  fairs,  and  the 
large  amounts  raised  by  them,  are  matters  of  history. 

In  an  address  delivered  at  a  meeting  of  ladies  in  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  in  March,  1865,  Mrs.  Hoge  thus  spoke  of  her  work 
and  that  of  the  women,  who  like  her,  had  given  themselves  to 
the  duty  of  endeavoring  to  provide  for  the  sick  and  suffering 
soldier : 

"The  women  of  the  land,  with  swelling  hearts  and  uplifted 
eyes  asked  'Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  us  to  do?'  The  mar 
vellous  organization  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission, 
with  its  various  modes  of  heavenly  activity,  pointed  out  the  way, 
saying  '  The  men  must  fight,  the  women  must  work,  this  is  the 
way,  follow  me.'  In  accepting  this  call,  there  has  been  no  reser 
vation.  Duty  has  been  taken  up,  in  whatever  shape  presented, 
nothing  refused  that  would  soothe  a  sorrow,  staunch  a  wound,  or 
heal  the  sickness  of  the  humblest  soldier  in  the  ranks.  Some 
have  drifted  into  positions  entirely  new  and  heretofore  avoided. 
They  have  gone  forth  from  the  bosom  of  their  families,  to  visit 


576 

hospitals,  camps,  and  battle-fields;  some  even  to  appear  as  we  do 
before  you  to-day,  to  plead  for  aid  for  our  sick  and  wounded  sol 
diers  suffering  and  dying  that  we  may  live.  The  memory  of  their 
heroism  is  inspiring — the  recollection  of  their  patience  and  long- 
suffering  is  overwhelming.  They  form  the  most  striking  human 
exemplification  of  divine  meekness  and  submission,  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  and  bring  to  mind  continually  the  passage,  'He  is 
brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth/" 

During  the  continuance  of  her  labors,  Mrs.  Hoge  was  fre 
quently  the  recipient  of  costly  and  elegant  gifts,  as  testimonials 
of  the  respect  and  gratitude  with  which  her  exertions  were  viewed. 

After  a  visit  to  the  Ladies7  Aid  Society,  of  West  Chester,  Penn 
sylvania,  she  was  presented  by  them  with  a  testimonial,  beauti 
fully  engrossed  upon  parchment,  surmounted  by  an  exquisitely 
painted  Union  flag. 

The  managers  of  the  Philadelphia  Fair,  believing  Mrs.  Hoge 
to  have  had  an  important  connection  with  that  fair,  presented  to 
her  a  beautiful  gift,  in  token  of  their  appreciation  of  her  services. 

The  Women's  Belief  Association,  of  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
presented  her  an  elegant  silver  vase. 

During  the  second  Sanitary  Fair  in  Chicago,  a  few  friends  pre 
sented  her  with  a  beautiful  silver  cup,  bearing  a  suitable  inscrip 
tion  in  Latin,  and  during  the  same  fair,  she  received  as  a  gift  a 
Roman  bell  of  green  bronze,  or  verd  antique,  of  rare  workman 
ship,  and  value,  as  an  object  of  art. 

Mrs.  Hoge  made  three  expeditions  to  the  Army  of  the  South 
west,  and  personally  visited  and  ministered  to  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  men  in  hospitals.  Few  among  the  many  effi 
cient  workers,  which  the  war  called  from  the  ease  and  retirement 
of  home,  can  submit  to  the  public  a  record  of  labors  as  efficient, 
varied,  and  long-continued,  as  hers. 


MRS  .  MARY  A.  1 , i v K  K M c >  KK 


MRS.    MARY   A.    LIVERMORE. 


E W  of  the  busy  and  active  laborers  in  the  broad  field 
of  woman's  effort  during  the  war,  have  been  more 
widely  or  favorably  known  than  Mrs.  Livermore.  Her 
labors,  with  her  pen,  commenced  with  the  commence 
ment  of  the  war ;  and  in  various  spheres  of  effort,  were  faithfully 
and  energetically  given  to  the  cause  of  the  soldier  and  humanity, 
until  a  hard-won  peace  had  once  more  "perched  upon  our  ban 
ners,"  and  the  need  of  them,  at  least  in  that  specific  direction,  no 
longer  existed. 

Mrs.  Livermore  is  a  native  of  Boston,  where  her  childhood 
and  girlhood  were  passed.  At  fourteen  years  of  age  she  was  a 
medal  scholar  of  the  "  Hancock  School,"  of  that  city,  and  three 
years  later,  she  graduated  from  the  "Charlestown  (Mass).,  Female 
Semifeary,"  when  she  became  connected  with  its  Board  of  In 
struction,  as  Teacher  of  Latin,  French  and  Italian.  With  the 
exception  of  two  years  spent  in  the  south  of  Virginia, — whence 
she  returned  an  uncompromising  anti-slavery  woman — her  home 
was  in  Boston  until  her  marriage,  to  Rev.  D.  P.  Livermore,  after 
which  she  resided  in  its  near  vicinity,  until  twelve  years  ago, 
when  with  her  husband  and  children  she  removed  West.  For 
the  last  ten  years  she  has  been  a  resident  of  Chicago.  Her  hus 
band  is  now  editor  of  the  New  Covenant,  a  paper  published  in 
Chicago,  Illinois,  in  advocacy  of  Universalist  sentiments,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  of  those  measures  of  reform,  which  tend  to  elevate 

73  577 


578 

and  purify  erring  and  sinful  human  nature.  Of  this  paper  Mrs. 
Livermore  is  associate  editor. 

Mrs.  Livermore  is  a  woman  of  remarkable  talent,  and  in  cer 
tain  directions  even  of  genius,  as  the  history  of  her  labors  in  con 
nection  with  the  war  amply  evinces.  Her  energy  is  great,  and 
her  executive  ability  far  beyond  the  average.  She  is  an  able 
writer,  striking  and  picturesque  in  description,  and  strong  and 
touching  in  appeal.  She  has  a  fine  command  of  language,  and  in 
her  conversation  or  her  addresses  to  assemblies  of  ladies,  one  may 
at  once  detect  the  tone  and  ease  of  manner  of  a  woman  trained 
to  pencraft.  She  is  the  author  of  several  books,  mostly  poems, 
essays  or  stories,  and  is  recognized  as  a  member  of  -the  literary 
guild.  The  columns  of  her  husband's  paper  furnished  her  the 
opportunity  she  desired  of  addressing  her  patriotic  appeals  to  the 
community,  and  her  vigorous  pen  was  ever  at  work  both  in  its 
columns,  and  those  of  the  other  papers  that  were  open  to  her. 
During  the  whole  war,  even  in  the  busiest  times,  not  a  week  was 
passed  that  she  did  not  publish  somewhere  two  or  three  columns 
at  the  least.  Letters,  incidents,  appeals,  editorial  correspondence, 
— always  something  useful,  interesting — head  and  hands  were 
always  busy,  and  the  small  implement,  "mightier  than  the 
sword"  was  never  allowed  to  rust  unused  in  the  ink-stand. 

Before  us,  as  we  write,  lies  an  article  published  in  the  New 
Covenant  of  May  18th,  1861,  and  as  we  see  written  scarcely  a 
month  after  the  downfall  of  Fort  Sumter.  It  is  entitled  "  Wo 
man  and  the  War,"  and  shows  how,  even  at  that  early  day,  the 
patriotism  of  American  women  was  bearing  fruit,  and  how  keenly 
and  sensitively  the  writer  appreciated  our  peril. 

"But  no  less  have  we  been  surprised  and  moved  to  admiration 
by  the  regeneration  of  the  women  of  our  land.  A  month  ago, 
and  we  saw  a  large  class,  aspiring  only  to  be  '  leaders  of  fashion/ 
and  belles  of  the  ball-room,  their  deepest  anxiety  clustering  about 
the  fear  that  the  gored  skirts,  and  bell-shaped  hoops  of  the  spring 
mode  might  not  be  becoming,  and  their  highest  happiness  being 


MRS.  MARY    A.  LIVERMORE.  581 

either  the  joint  or  individual  labors  of  these  ladies  exists.  For 
the  outline  of  those  of  Mrs.  Livermore,  dependence  is  mostly 
made  upon  her  communications  to  the  New  Covenant,  and  other 
Journals — upon  articles  not  written  with  the  design  of  furnish 
ing  information  of  personal  effort,  so  much,  as  to  give  such  state 
ments  of  the  soldier's  need,  and  of  the  various  efforts  in  that 
direction,  as  together  with  appeals,  and  exhortations  to  renewed 
benevolence  and  sacrifice,  might  best  keep  the  public  mind  con 
stantly  stimulated  and  excited  to  fresh  endeavor. 

Running  through  these  papers,  we  find  everywhere  evidences 
of  the  intense  loyalty  of  this  gifted  woman,  and  also  of  the  deep 
and  equally  outspoken  scorn  with  which  she  regarded  every  evi 
dence  of  treasonable  opinion,  or  of  sympathy  with  secession,  on 
the  part  of  army  leaders,  or  the  civil  authorities.  The  reader 
will  remember  the  repulse  experienced  in  the  winter  of  1861—2, 
by  the  Hutch insons,  those  sweet  singers,  whose  "  voices  have  ever 
been  heard  chanting  the  songs  of  Freedom — always  lifted  in 
harmonious  accord  in  support  of  every  good  and  noble  cause." 
Mrs.  Livermore's  spirit  was  stirred  by  the  story  of  their  wrongs, 
and  thus  in  keenest  sarcasm,  she  gave  utterance  to  her  scorn  of 
this  weak  and  foolish  deed  of  military  tyrants  encamping  a  winter 
through,  before  empty  forts  and  Quaker  guns,  while  they  ven 
tured  only  to  make  war  upon  girls  :  "  While  the  whole  country  has 
been  waiting  in  breathless  suspense  for  six  months,  each  one  of 
which  has  seemed  an  eternity  to  the  loyal  people  of  the  North, 
for  the  l grand  forward  movement'  of  the  army,  which  is  to  cut 
the  Gordian  knot  of  the  rebellion,  and  perform  unspeakable  pro 
digies,  not  lawful  for  man  to  utter,  a  backward  movement  has 
been  executed  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  by  the  valiant  com 
manders  there  stationed,  for  which  none  of  us  were  prepared.  No 
person,  even  though  his  imagination  possessed  a  seven-leagued- 
boot-power  of  travel,  could  have  anticipated  the  last  great  exploit 
of  our  generals,  whose  energies  thus  far,  have  been  devoted  to 
the  achieving  of  a  '  masterly  inactivity.'  The  '  forward  move- 


582 

ment'  has  receded  and  receded,  like  the  cup  of  Tantalus,  but  the 
backward  movement  came  suddenly  upon  us,  like  a  thief  in  the 
night." 

"The  Hutchinson  family,  than  whom  no  sweeter  songsters  glad 
den  this  sorrow-darkened  world,  have  been  singing  in  Washing 
ton,  to  the  President,  and  to  immense  audiences,  everywhere  giv 
ing  unmixed  delight.  Week  before  last  they  obtained  a  pass  to 
the  camps  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac,  with  the  laudable  pur 
pose  of  spending  a  month  among  them,  cheering  the  hearts  of 
the  soldiers,  and  enlivening  the  monotonous  and  barren  camp  life 
with  their  sweet  melody.  But  they  ventured  to  sing  a  patriotic 
song — a  beautiful  song  of  Whittier's,  which  gave  offense  to  a  few 
semi-secessionists  among  the  officers  of  the  army,  for  which  they 
were  severely  reprimanded  by  Generals  Franklin  and  Kearny, 
their  pass  revoked  by  General  McClellan,  and  they  driven  back 
to  Washington.  A  backward  movement  was  ordered  instanter, 
and  no  sooner  ordered,  than  executed.  Brave  Franklin !  heroic 
Kearny  !  victorious  McClellan  !  why  did  ye  not  order  a  Te  Deum 
on  the  occasion  of  this  great  victory  over  a  band  of  Vermont 
minstrels,  half  of  whom  were — girls !  How  must  the  hearts  of 
the  illustrious  West-Pointers  have  pit-a-patted  with  joy,  and  di 
lated  with  triumph,  as  they  saw  the  Hutchinson  troupe — Asa  B., 
and  Lizzie  C.,  little  Dennett  and  Freddy,  naive  Viola,  melodeon 
and  all — scampering  back  through  the  mud,  bowed  beneath  the 
weight  of  their  military  displeasure  !  Per  contra  to  this  expul 
sion,  be  it  remembered  that  it  occurred  within  sight  of  the  resi 
dence  of  a  family,  in  which  there  are  some  five  or  six  young 
ladies,  who,  it  is  alleged,  have  been  promised  "passes"  to  go 
South  whenever  they  are  disposed  to  do  so, — carrying,  of  course, 
all  the  information  they  can  for  the  enemy.  The  bands  of  the 
regiments  are  also  sent  to  serenade  them,  and  on  these  occasions 
orders  are  given  to  suppress  the  national  airs,  as  being  offensive 
to  these  traitors  in  crinoline." 

During  the  year  1862,  Mrs.  Livermore,  besides  the  constant 


MRS.  MARY    A.  LIVERMORE.  583 

flow  of  communications  from  her  pen,  visited  the  army  at  various 
points,  and  in  company  with  her  friend,  Mrs.  Hoge,  travelled 
over  the  Northwestern  states,  organizing  numerous  Aid  Societies 
among  the  women  of  those  states,  who  were  found  everywhere 
anxious  for  the  privilege  of  working  for  the  soldiers,  and  only 
desirous  of  knowing  how  best  to  accomplish  this  purpose,  and 
through  what  channel  they  might  best  forward  their  benefactions. 

In  December  of  that  year,  the  Sanitary  Commission  called  a 
council,  or  convention  of  its  members  and  branches  at  Washing 
ton,  desiring  that  every  Branch  Commission  in  the  North  should 
be  represented  by  at  least  two  ladies  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
its  workings,  who  had  been  connected  with  it  from  the  first. 
Mrs.  Hoge  and  Mrs.  Livermore  were  appointed  by  the  Chicago 
Branch. 

They  accordingly  proceeded  to  Washington — a  long  and  ardu 
ous  journey  in  mid  winter,  but  these  were  not  wromen  to  grudge 
toil  or  sacrifice,  nor  to  shrink  from  duty. 

Both  these  ladies  had  laid  their  talents  upon  the  altar  of  the 
cause  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  both  felt  the  pressing 
necessity  at  that  time  of  a  determined  effort  to  relieve  the  fright 
ful  existing  need.  Sanitary  supplies  were  decidedly  on  the 
decrease,  while  the  demand  for  their  increase  was  most  piteously 
pressing.  There  was  a  strong  call  for  the  coming  "council"  of 
friends. 

There  were  hindrances  and  delays.  Delay  at  starting,  in 
taking  a  regiment  on  board  the  cars,  necessitating  other  delays, 
and  waiting  for  trains  on  time  through  the  whole  distance. 

The  days  spent  in  Washington  were  filled  with  good  deeds, 
and  a  thousand  incidents  all  connected  in  some  way  with  the 
great  work.  Of  the  results  of  that  council,  the  public  was  long 
since  informed,  and  few  who  were  interested  in  the  work,  did  not 
learn  to  appreciate  the  more  earnest  labor,  the  greater  sacrifice  and 
self-devotion  which  soon  spread  from  it  through  the  country. 
Spirits,  self-consecrated  to  so  holy  a  work,  could  scarcely  meet 


584 

without  the  kindling  of  a  flame  that  should  spread  all  over  the 
country,  till  every  tender  woman's  heart,  in  all  the  land,  had 
been  touched  by  it,  to  the  accomplishment  of  greater  and  brighter 
deeds. 

While  in  Washington,  Mrs.  Livermore  spent  a  day  at  the  camp 
near  Alexandria,  set  apart  for  convalescents  from  the  hospitals, 
and  known  as  "  Camp  Misery."  The  suffering  there,  as  we  have 
already  stated  in  the  sketch  of  Miss  Amy  M.  Bradley's  labors, 
was  terrible  from  insufficient  food,  clothing  and  fuel,  from  want 
of  drainage,  and  many  other  causes,  any  one  of  which  might 
well  have  proved  fatal  to  the  feeble  sufferers  there  crowded 
together.  The  pen  of  Mrs.  Livermore  carried  the  story  of  these 
wrongs  all  around  the  land.  While  she  was  in  Washington, 
eighteen  half  sick  soldiers  died  at  the  camp  in  one  night,  from 
cold  and  starvation.  "The  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of 
the  church/7  and  the  blood  of  these  soaking  into  the  soil  where 
dwelt  patriotic,  warm-souled  men  and  women,  presently  produced 
a  noble  growth  and  fruitage  of  charity,  and  sacrifice,  and  blessed 
deeds. 

Mrs.  Livermore  has  given  her  impressions  of  the  President, 
gained  from  a  visit  made  to  the  White  House  during  this  stay. 
She  was  one  capable  fully  of  appreciating  the  noble,  simple,  yet 
lofty  nature  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Early  in  this  year,  Mrs.  Livermore  made  a  tour  of  the  hospi 
tals  and  military  posts  scattered  along  the  Mississippi  river.  She 
Avas  everywhere  a  messenger  of  good  tidings.  Sanitary  supplies 
and  cheering  words  seem  to  have  been  always  about  equally  ap 
preciated  among  the  troops.  Volunteers,  fresh  from  home,  and 
the  quiet  comfort  of  domestic  life,  willing  to  fight,  and  if  need 
be  die  for  the  glorious  idea  of  freedom,  they  yet  had  no  thought 
of  war  as  a  profession.  It  was  a  sad,  stern  incident  in  their 
lives,  but  not  the  life  they  longed  for,  or  meant  to  follow.  Any 
thing  that  was  like  home,  the  sight  of  a  woman's  face,  or  the 
sound  of  her  voice,  and  all  the  sordid  hardness  of  their  present 


MRS.  MARY   A.  LIVERMORE.  585 

lives,  all  the  martial  pageantry  faded  away,  and  they  remembered 
only  that  they  were  sons,  brothers,  husbands  and  fathers.  Every 
where  her  reception  was  a  kind,  a  respectful,  and  even  a  grateful 
one. 

There  was  much  sickness  among  the  troops,  and  the  fearful 
ravages  of  scurvy  and  the  deadly  malaria  of  the  swamps  and 
bottom-lands  along  the  great  river  were  enemies  far  more  to  be 
dreaded  than  the  thunder  of  artillery,  or  the  hurtling  shells. 

During  this  trip  she  found  in  the  hospitals,  at  St.  Louis,  and 
elsewhere,  large  numbers  of  female  nurses,  and  ladies  who  had 
volunteered  to  perform  these  services  temporarily.  The  surgeons 
were  at  that  time,  almost  without  exception,  opposed  to  their  being 
employed  in  the  hospitals,  though  their  services  were  afterwards, 
as  the  need  increased,  greatly  desired  and  warmly  welcomed. 
For  these  she  soon  succeeded  in  finding  opportunities  for  render 
ing  the  service  which  they  desired  to  the  sick  and  wounded. 

Were  it  possible  in  the  space  allowed  for  this  sketch,  to  give  a 
tithe  of  the  incidents  which  came  under  the  eyes  of  Mrs.  Liver- 
more,  or  even  a  small  portion  of  her  observations  in  steamer,  train, 
or  hospital,  some  idea  of  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  her 
work  might  be  gained.  But  this  we  cannot  do,  and  must  content 
ourselves  with  this  partial  allusion  to  her  constant  and  indefati 
gable  labors. 

The  premonitory  symptoms  of  scurvy  in  the  camps  around 
Yicksburg,  and  its  actual  existence  in  many  cases  in  the  hospitals, 
so  aroused  the  sympathies  of  Mrs.  Livermore  and  Mrs.  Hoge,  on 
a  second  visit  to  these  camps,  that  after  warning  General  Grant 
of  the  danger  which  his  medical  directors  had  previously  con 
cealed  from  him,  these  two  ladies  hastened  up  the  river,  and  by 
their  earnest  appeals  and  their  stirring  and  eloquent  circulars 
asking  for  onions,  potatoes,  and  other  vegetables,  they  soon  awak 
ened  such  an  interest,  that  within  three  weeks,  over  a  thousand 
bushels  of  potatoes  and  onions  were  forwarded  to  the  army,  and 
by  their  timely  distribution  saved  it  from  imminent  peril. 

74  * 


586  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

In  the  autumn  of  1863,  the  great  Northwestern  Sanitary  Fair, 
the  first  of  that  series  of  similar  fairs  which  united  the  North  in 
a  bond  of  large  and  wide-spread  charity,  occurred.  It  was  Mrs. 
Livermore  who  suggested  and  planned  the  first  fair,  which  netted 
almost  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  Sanitary  Commission. 
Mrs.  Hoge,  had  at  first,  no  confidence  in  the  project,  but  she  after 
ward  joined  it,  and  giving  it  her  earnest  aid,  helped  to  carry  it  to 
a  successful  conclusion.  It  was  indeed  a  giant  plan,  and  it  may 
be  chiefly  credited,  from  its  inception  to  its  fortunate  close,  to 
these  indefatigable  and  skilful  workers.  The  writer  of  this  sketch 
was  present  at  the  convention  of  women  of  the  Northwest  called 
to  meet  at  Chicago,  and  consider  the  feasibility  of  the  project,  and 
was  forcibly  impressed  with  the  great  and  real  power,  the  concen 
trated  moral  force,  contained  in  that  meeting,  and  left  its  doors 
without  one  doubt  of  the  complete  and  ultimate  success  of  the  plan 
discussed.  Mrs.  Livermore  held  there  a  commanding  position. 
A  brilliant  and  earnest  speaker,  her  words  seemed  to  sway  the 
attentive  throng.  Her  commanding  person,  added  to  the  power 
of  her  words.  Gathered  upon  the  platform  of  Bryan  Hall,  were 
Mrs.  Hoge,  Mrs.  Colt,  of  Milwaukee,  and  many  more,  perhaps 
less  widely  known,  but  bearing  upon  their  faces  and  in  their  atti 
tudes,  the  impress  of  cultured  minds,  and  an  earnest  active 
resolve  to  do,  which  seemed  to  insure  success.  Mrs.  Livermore, 
seated  below  the  platform,  from  time  to  time  passed  among  the 
crowd,  and  her  suggestions  whether  quietly  made  to  individuals, 
or  given  in  her  clear  ringing  voice,  and  well  selected  language  to 
the  convention,  were  everywhere  received  with  respect  and  defer 
ence.  As  all  know,  this  fair  which  was  about  three  months  in 
course  of  preparation,  was  on  a  mammoth  scale,  and  was  a  great 
success,  and  this  result  was  no  doubt  greatly  owing  to  the  presence 
of  that  quality,  which  like  every  born  leader,  Mrs.  Livermore 
evidently  possesses — that  of  knowing  how  to  select  judiciously, 
the  subordinates  and  instruments  to  be  employed  to  carry  out  the 
plans  which  have  originated  in  her  mind. 


MRS.  MARY    A.  LIVERMORB.  587 

When  this  fair  had  been  brought  to  a  successful  close,  Mrs. 
Livermore  returned  to  the  particular  work  of  her  agency.  When 
not  traveling  on  the  business  connected  with  it,  she  spent  many 
busy  days  at  the  rooms  of  the  Commission  in  Chicago.  The  his 
tory  of  some  of  those  days  she  has  written — a  history  full  of 
pathos  and  illuminated  with  scores  of  examples  of  noble  and 
worthy  deeds — of  the  sacrifices  of  hard-worked  busy  women  for 
the  soldiers — of  tender  self-sacrificing  wives  concealing  poverty 
and  sorrow,  and  swallowing  bitter  tears,  and  whispering  no  word 
of  sorrows  hard  to  bear,  that  the  husband,  far  away  fighting  for 
his  country,  might  never  know  of  their  sufferings;  of  the  small 
but  fervently  offered  alms  of  little  children,  of  the  anguish  of 
parents  waiting  the  arrival  through  this  channel  of  tidings  of  their 
wounded  or  their  dead;  of  heroic  nurses  going  forth  to  their  sad 
labors  in  the  hospitals,  with  their  lives  in  their  hands,  or  return 
ing  in  their  coffins,  or  with  broken  health,  the  sole  reward,  beside 
the  soldiers7  thanks,  for  all  their  devotion. 

Journey  after  journey  Mrs.  Livermore  made,  during  the  next- 
two  years,  in  pursuance  of  her  mission,  till  her  name  and  person 
were  familiar  not  only  in  the  camps  and  hospitals  of  the  great 
'West,  but  in  the  assemblies  of  patriotic  women  in  the  Eastern 
and  Middle  States.  And  all  the  time  the  tireless  pen  paused  not 
in  its  blessed  work. 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  another  fair  was  in  contemplation.  As 
before,  Mrs.  Livermore  visited  the  Eastern  cities,  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  aid  in  her  project,  and  as  before  was  most  successful. 

In  pursuance  of  this  object,  she  made  a  flying  visit  to  Wash 
ington,  her  chief  purpose  being  to  induce  the  President  to  attend 
the  fair,  and  add  the  eclat  of  his  presence  and  that  of  Mrs.  Lin 
coln,  to  the  brilliant  occasion.  An  account  of  her  interview  with 
him  whom  she  was  never  again  to  see  in  life,  which,  with  her 
impressions  of  his  character,  we  gain  from  her  correspondence 
with  the  New  Covenant,  is  appended. 

"Our  first  effort  was  to  obtain  an  interview  with  the  President 


538 

and  Mrs.  Lincoln — and  this,  by  the  way,  is  usually  the  first  effort 
of  all  new  comers.  We  were  deputized  to  invite  our  Chief  Magis 
trate  to  attend  the  great  Northwestern  Fair,  to  be  held  in  May — 
and  this  was  our  errand.  With  the  escort  of  a  Senator,  who 
takes  precedence  of  all  other  visitors,  it  is  very  easy  to  obtain  an 
interview  with  the  President,  and  as  we  were  favored  in  this 
respect,  we  were  ushered  into  the  audience  chamber  without  much 
delay.  The  President  received  us  kindly,  as  he  does  all  who 
approach  him.  He  was  already  apprised  of  the  fair,  and  spoke 
of  it  with  much  interest,  and  with  a  desire  to  attend  it.  He  gave 
us  a  most  laughable  account  of  his  visit  to  the  Philadelphia  Fair, 
when,  as  he  expressed  it,  "for  two  miles  it  was  all  people,  where 
it  wasn't  houses/  and  where  'he  actually  feared  he  should  be 
pulled  from  the  carriage  windows.7  We  notified  him  that  he 
must  be  prepared  for  a  still  greater  crowd  in  Chicago,  as  the 
whole  Northwest  would  come  out  to  shake  hands  with  him,  and 
told  him  that  a  petition  for  his  attendance  at  the  fair,  was  in 
circulation,  that  would  be  signed  by  ten  thousand  women  of  Chi 
cago.  '  But/  said  he,  '  what  do  you  suppose  my  wife  will  say,  at 
ten  thousand  ladies  coming  after  me  in  that  style?'  We  assured 
him  that  the  invitation  included  Mrs.  Lincoln  also,  when  he 
laughed  heartily,  and  promised  attendance,  if  State  duties  did  not 
absolutely  forbid.  'It  would  be  wearisome/  he  said,  'but  it 
would  gratify  the  people  of  the  Northwest,  and  so  he  would  try 
to  come — and  he  thought  by  that  time,  circumstances  would  per 
mit  his  undertaking  a  short  tour  West.'  This  was  all  that  we 
could  ask,  or  expect. 

"  We  remained  for  some  time,  watching  the  crowds  that  surged 
through  the  spacious  apartments,  and  the  President's  reception  of 
them.  Where  they  entered  the  room  indifferently,  and  gazed  at 
him  as  if  he  were  a  part  of  the  furniture,  or  gave  him  simply  a 
mechanical  nod  of  the  head,  he  allowed  them  to  pass  on,  as  they 
elected.  But  where  he  was  met  by  a  warm  grasp  of  the  hand,  a 
look  of  genuine  friendliness,  of  grateful  recognition  or  of  tearful 


MRS.  MARY   A.  LIVERMORE.  589 

tenderness,  the  President's  look  and  manner  answered  the  expres 
sion  entirely.  To  the  lowly  and  the  humble  he  was  especially 
kind;  his  worn  face  took  on  a  look  of  exquisite  tenderness,  as  he 
shook  hands  with  soldiers  who  carried  an  empty  coat  sleeve,  or 
swung  themselves  on  crutches ;  and  not  a  child  was  allowed  to 
pass  him  by  without  a  kind  word  from  him.  A  bright  boy, 
about  the  size  and  age  of  the  son  he  had  buried,  was  going 
directly  by,  without  appearing  even  to  see  the  President.  'Stop, 
my  little  man/  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  laying  his  hand  on  his  shoulder, 
'aren't  you  going  to  speak  to  me?'  And  stooping  down,  he  took 
the  child's  hands  in  his  own,  and  looked  lovingly  in  his  face, 
chatting  with  him  for  some  moments." 

The  plans  of  Mrs.  Livermore  in  regard  to  the  fair  were  carried 
out — with  one  sad  exception.  It  was  a  much  greater  success  pe 
cuniarily  than  the  first.  And  the  war  was  over,  and  it  was  the  last 
time  that  wounded  soldiers  would  call  for  aid.  But  alas !  the  great 
and  good  man  whose  presence  she  had  coveted  lay  cold  in  death ! 
She  had  promised  him  "  days  of  rest"  when  he  should  come,  and 
long  ere  then,  he  had  entered  his  eternal  rest,  and  all  that  remained 
of  him  had  been  carried  through  those  streets,  decked  in  mourning. 

Like  her  friend,  Mrs.  Hoge,  Mrs.  Livermore  was  cheered  dur 
ing  her  labors  by  testimonials  of  appreciation  from  her  co-labor 
ers,  and  of  gratitude  from  the  brave  men  for  whom  she  toiled. 
An  exquisite  silver  vase  was  sent  her  by  the  Women's  Relief 
Association,  of  Brooklyn,  the  counterpart  of  that  sent  Mrs.  Hoge 
at  the  same  time.  From  her  co-workers  in  the  last  Sanitary  Fair, 
she  also  received  a  gold-lined  silver  goblet,  and  a  verd-antique 
Roman  bell — the  former  bearing  this  complimentary  inscription, 
"Pocvlum  qui  meruit  fuit"  But  the  gifts  most  prized  by  her  are 
the  comparatively  inexpensive  testimonials  made  by  the  soldiers 
to  whom  she  ministered.  At  one  time  she  rejoiced  in  the  posses 
sion  of  fourteen  photograph  albums,  in  every  style  of  binding, 
each  one  emblazoned  with  a  frontispiece  of  the  maimed  or  ema 
ciated  soldier  who  gave  it. 


GENERAL   AID   SOCIETY    FOR    THE 
ARMY,   BUFFALO. 


HIS  Society,  a  Branch  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  was 
organized  in  the  summer  of  1862,  and  became  one  of 
the  Branches  of  the  Commission  in  the  autumn  of 
1862,  had  eventually  for  its  field  of  operations,  the 
Western  Counties  of  New  York,  a  few  counties  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Michigan,  and  received  also  occasional  supplies  from  one  or 
two  of  the  border  counties  in  Ohio,  and  from  individuals  in 
Canada  West. 

Its  first  President  was  Mrs.  Joseph  E.  Follett,  a  lady  of  great 
tact  and  executive  ability,  who  in  1862,  resigned,  in  consequence 
of  the  removal  of  her  husband  to  Minnesota.  Mrs.  Hora 
tio  Seymour,  the  wife  of  a  prominent  business  man  of  Buffalo, 
was  chosen  to  succeed  Mrs.  Follett,  and  developed  in  the  per 
formance  of  her  duties,  abilities  as  a  manager,  of  the  highest  or 
der.  Through  her  efforts,  ably  seconded  as  they  were  by  Miss 
Babcock  and  Miss  Bird,  the  Secretaries  of  the  Society,  the  whole 
field  was  thoroughly  organized,  and  brought  up  to  its  highest 
condition  of  efficiency,  and  kept  there  through  the  whole  period 
of  the  war. 

A  friendly  rivalry  was  maintained  between  this  branch  and  the 
Soldiers7  Aid  Society  of  Northern  Ohio,  and  the  perfect  system 
and  order  with  which  both  were  conducted,  the  eloquent  appeals 
and  the  stirring  addresses  by  which  both  kept  their  auxiliaries  up 

590 


GENERAL   AID    SOCIETY    FOR    THE    ARMY,  BUFFALO.       591 

to  their  work,  and  the  grand  and  noble  results  accomplished  by 
each,  are  worthy  of  all  praise.  In  this,  as  in  the  Cleveland  So 
ciety,  the  only  paid  officer  was  the  porter.  All  the  rest  served, 
the  President  and  Secretaries  daily,  the  cutters,  packers,  and 
others,  on  alternate  days,  or  at  times  semi-weekly,  without  fee  or 
compensation.  Arduous  as  their  duties  were,  and  far  as  they 
were  from  any  romantic  idea  of  heroism,  or  of  notable  personal 
service  to  the  cause,  these  noble,  patient,  and  really  heroic  wo 
men,  rejoiced  in  the  thought  that  by  their  labors  they  were  in 
directly  accomplishing  a  good  work  in  furnishing  the  means  of 
comfort  and  healing  to  thousands  of  the  soldiers,  who,  but  for 
their  labors  would  have  perished  from  sickness  or  wounds,  but 
through  their  care  and  the  supplies  they  provided,  were  restored 
again  to  the  ranks,  and  enabled  to  render  excellent  service  in  put 
ting  down  the  Rebellion. 

In  her  closing  report,  Mrs.  Seymour  says : 

"  We  have  sent  nearly  three  thousand  packages  to  Louisville, 
and  six  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  New  York.  We  have  cut 
and  provided  materials  at  our  rooms,  for  over  twenty  thousand 
suits,  and  other  articles  for  the  army,  amounting  in  all  to  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  pieces.  Little  children,  mostly  girls 
under  twelve  years  of  age,  have  given  us  over  twenty-five  hun 
dred  dollars." 

Like  all  the  earnest  workers  of  this  class,  Mrs.  Seymour  ex 
presses  the  highest  admiration  for  what  was  done  by  those  name 
less  heroines,  "the  patriot  workers  in  quiet  country  homes,  who 
with  self-sacrifice  rarely  equalled,  gave  their  best  spare-room  linen 
and  blankets,  their  choicest  dried  fruits,  wines  and  pickles, — and 
in  all  seasons  met  to  sew  for  the  soldiers,  or  went  about  from 
house  to  house  to  collect  the  supplies  to  fill  the  box  which  came 
regularly  once  a  month."  Almost  every  woman  who  toiled  thus, 
had  a  family  whose  sole  care  depended  upon  her,  and  many  of 
them  had  dairies  or  other  farm-work  to  occupy  their  attention, 
yet  they  rarely  or  never  failed  to  have  the  monthly  box  filled  and 


592 

forwarded  promptly.  We  agree  with  Mrs.  Seymour  in  our  esti 
mate  of  the  nobleness  and  self-sacrificing  spirit  manifested  bv 
these  women ;  but  the  patriotic  and  self-denying  heroines  of  the 
war  were  not  in  country  villages,  rural  hamlets,  and  isolated 
farms  alone ;  those  ladies  who  for  their  love  to  the  national  cause, 
left  their  homes  daily  and  toiled  steadily  and  patiently  through 
the  long  years  of  the  war,  in  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold, 
voluntarily  secluding  themselves  from  the  society  and  social  po 
sition  they  were  so  well  fitted  to  adorn,  and  in  which  they  had 
been  the  bright  particular  stars,  these  too,  for  the  great  love  they 
bore  to  their  country  should  receive  its  honors  and  its  heartfelt 
thanks. 


MICHIGAN    SOLDIERS'    AID    SOCIETY. 


EW  of  the  States  of  the  Northwest,  patriotic  as  they  all 
were,  present  as  noble  a  record  as  Michigan.  Isolated 
by  its  position  from  any  immediate  peril  from  the  rebel 
forces,  (unless  we  reckon  their  threatened  raids  from 
Canada,  in  the  last  year  of  the  War),  its  loyal  and  Union-loving 
citizens  volunteered  with  a  promptness,  and  fought  with  a  cour 
age  surpassed  by  no  troops  in  the  Armies  of  the  Republic.  They 
were  sustained  in  their  patriotic  sacrifices  by  an  admirable  home 
influence.  The  successive  Governors  of  the  State,  daring  the  war, 
its  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and  its  prominent 
citizens  at  home,  all  contributed  their  full  share  toward  keeping 
up  the  fervor  of  the  brave  soldiers  in  the  field.  Nor  were  the 
women  of  the  State  inferior  to  the  other  sex  in  zeal  and  self- 
sacrifice.  The  services  of  Mrs.  Annie  Etheridge,  and  of  Bridget 
Divers,  as  nurses  in  the  field-hospitals,  and  under  fire  are  else 
where  recorded  in  this  volume.  Others  were  equally  faithful  and 
zealous,  who  will  permit  no  account  of  their  labors  of  love  to  be 
given  to  the  public.  There  were  from  an  early  period  of  the  war 
two  organizations  in  the  State,  which  together  with  the  North 
western  Sanitary  Commission,  received  and  forwarded  the  sup 
plies  contributed  throughout  the  State  for  the  soldiers  to  the  great 
depots  of  distribution  at  Louisville,  St.  Louis,  and  New  York. 
These  were  "The  Soldiers'  Relief  Committee/'  and  the  Soldiers' 
Aid  Society  of  Detroit.  There  were  also  State  agencies  at  Wash 
ington  and  New  York,  well  managed,  and  which  rendered  early 

75  593 


594  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAK. 

in  the  war  great  services  to  the  Michigan  troops.  The  Soldiers' 
Aid  Society  of  Detroit,  though  acting  informally  previously,  was 
formally  organized  in  November,  1862,  with  Mrs.  John  Palmer, 
as  President,  and  Miss  Valeria  Campbell,  as  Corresponding  Secre 
tary.  In  the  summer  of  1863,  the  Society  changed  its  name  to 
"The  Michigan  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,"  and  the  Soldiers'  Relief 
Committee,  having  been  merged  in  it,  became  the  Michigan 
Branch  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  addressed  itself  earnestly 
to  the  work  of  collecting  and  increasing  the  supplies  gathered  in 
all  parts  of  the  State,  and  sending  them  to  the  depots  of  the  Com 
mission  at  Louisville  and  New  York,  or  directly  to  the  front 
when  necessary.  At  the  time  of  this  change,  Hon.  John  Owen, 
one  of  the  Associate  members  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  was 
chosen  President,  B.  Vernor,  Esq.,  Hon.  James  V.  Campbell, 
and  P.  E.  Demill,  Esq.,  also  Associates  of  the  Commission,  Miss 
S.  A.  Sibley,  Mrs.  H.  L.  Chipman,  and  Mrs.  N.  Adams,  were 
elected  Vice  Presidents,  and  Miss  Valeria  Campbell,  continued 
in  the  position  of  Recording  Secretary,  while  the  venerable  Dr. 
Zina  Pitcher,  one  of  the  constituent  members  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission  was  their  counsellor  and  adviser. 

Of  this  organization,  Miss  Campbell  was  the  soul.  Untiring 
in  her  efforts,  systematic  and  methodical  in  her  work,  a  writer  of 
great  power  and  eloquence,  and  as  patriotic  and  devoted  as  any 
of  those  who  served  in  the  hospitals,  or  among  the  wounded  men 
on  the  battle-field,  she  accomplished  an  amount  of  labor  which 
few  could  have  undertaken  with  success.  The  correspondence 
with  all  the  auxiliaries,  the  formation  of  new  Societies,  and  Alert 
clubs  in  the  towns  and  villages  of  the  State,  the  constant  prepa 
ration  and  distribution  of  circulars  and  bulletins  to  stimulate  the 
small  societies  to  steady  and  persistent  effort,  the  correspondence 
with  the  Western  Office  at  Louisville,  and  the  sending  thither 
invoices  of  the  goods  shipped,  and  of  the  monthly  accounts  of 
the  branch,  these  together,  formed  an  amount  of  work  which  would 
have  appalled  any  but  the  most  energetic  and  systematic  of  wo- 


595 

men.  In  her  labors,  Miss  Campbell  received  great  and  valuable 
assistance  from  Mrs.  N.  Adams,  one  of  the  Vice  Presidents,  Mrs. 
Brent,  Mrs.  Sabine,  Mrs.  Luther  B.  Willard,  and  Mrs.  C. 
E.  Russell.  The  two  last  named  ladies,  not  satisfied  with  work 
ing  for  the  soldiers  at  home,  went  to  the  army  and  distributed 
their  supplies  in  person,  and  won  the  regard  of  the  soldiers  by 
their  faithfulness  and  zeal. 

In  the  year  ending  November  1st,  1864,  one  thousand  two 
hundred  and  thirty-five  boxes,  barrels,  etc.,  were  sent  from 
this  branch  to  the  Army,  besides  a  large  amount  supplied  to  the 
Military  Hospitals  in  Detroit,  nearly  six  thousand  dollars  in 
money  was  raised,  besides  nearly  two  thousand  dollars  toward  a 
Soldiers'  Home,  which  was  established  during  the  year,  and  fur 
nished  forty-two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty-five  meals, 
and  fourteen  thousand  three  hundred  and  ninety-nine  lodgings  to 
five  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety-nine  soldiers  from  eight 
different  States.  In  the  organization  of  this  Home,  as  well  as  in 
providing  for  the  families  of  the  soldiers,  Miss  Campbell  was,  as 
usual,  the  leading  spirit.  In  both  the  Fairs  held  at  Chicago, 
September,  1863,  and  June,  1865,  the  Michigan  Branch  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  rendered  essential  service.  Their  receipts 
from  the  second  Fair,  were  thirteen  thousand  three  hundred  and 
eighty-four  dollars  and  fifty-eight  cents  less  three  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  dollars  and  sixty-five  cents  expenses, 
and  this  balance  was  expended  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Sol 
diers'  Home,  and  caring  for  such  of  the  sick  and  disabled  men  as 
were  not  provided  for  in  the  Hospitals.  Of  the  aggregate  amount 
contributed  by  this  branch  to  the  relief  of  the  soldiers  in  money 
and  supplies,  we  cannot  as  yet  obtain  a  detailed  estimate.  We 
only  know  that  it  exceeded  three  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


WOMEN'S     PENNSYLVANIA     BRANCH 
OF  U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION. 


HILADELPHIA  was  distinguished  throughout  the 
war  by  the  intense  and  earnest  loyalty  and  patriotism 
of  its  citizens,  and  especially  of  its  women.  No  ether 
city  furnished  so  many  faithful  workers  in  the  hos 
pitals,  the  Refreshment  Saloons,  the  Soldiers'  Homes  and  Read 
ing-rooms,  and  no  other  was  half  so  well  represented  in  the  field, 
camp,  and  general  hospitals  at  the  "front."  Sick  and  wounded 
soldiers  began  to  arrive  in  Philadelphia  very  early  in  the  war, 
and  hospital  after  hospital  was  opened  for  their  reception  until  in 
1863—4,  there  were  in  the  city  and  county  twenty-six  military 
hospitals,  many  of  them  of  great  extent.  To  all  of  these,  the 
women  of  Philadelphia  ministered  most  generously  and  devotedly, 
so  arranging  their  labors  that  to  each  hospital  there  was  a  com 
mittee,  some  of  whose  members  visited  its  wards  daily,  and  pre 
pared  and  distributed  the  special  diet  and  such  delicacies  as  the 
surgeons  allowed.  But  as  the  war  progressed,  these  patriotic 
women  felt  that  they  ought  to  do  more  for  the  soldiers,  than 
simply  to  minister  to  those  of  them  who  were  in  the  hospitals  of 
the  city.  They  were  sending  to  the  active  agents  in  the  field, 
Mrs.  Harris,  Mrs.  Husband,  Mrs.  Lee,  and  others  large  quanti 
ties  of  stores;  the  "Ladies' Aid  Association,"  organized  in  April, 
1861,  enlisted  the  energies  of  one  class,  the  Penn  Relief  Associa 
tion,  quietly  established  by  the  Friends,  had  not  long  after,  furnished 
an  outlet  for  the  overflowing  sympathies  and  kindness  of  the  fol- 

598 


PENNSYLVANIA  BRANCH  OF  U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION.     597 

lowers  of  George  Fox  and  William  Perm;  and  "the  Soldiers' 
Aid  Association/7  whose  president,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Brady,  repre 
sented  it  so  ably  in  the  field,  until  her  incessant  labors  and  hard 
ships  brought  on  disease  of  the  heart,  and  in  May,  1864,  ended 
her  active  and  useful  life,  had  rallied  around  it  a  corps  of  noble 
and  faithful  workers.  But  there  were  yet  hundreds,  aye,  thou 
sands,  who  felt  that  they  must  do  more  than  they  were  doing  for 
the  soldiers.  The  organizations  we  have  named,  though  having 
a  considerable  number  of  auxiliaries  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey 
and  Delaware,  did  not  by  any  means  cover  the  whole  ground, 
and  none  of  them  were  acting  to  any  considerable  extent  through 
the  Sanitary  Commission  which  had  been  rapidly  approving 
itself  as  the  most  efficient  and  satisfactory  agency  for  the  distri 
bution  of  supplies  to  the  army.  In  the  winter  of  1862—3  those 
friends  of  the  soldier,  not  as  yet  actively  connected  with  either  of 
the  three  associations  we  have  named,  assembled  at  the  Academy 
of  Music,  and  after  an  address  from  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  organized 
themselves  as  the  Women's  Pennsylvania  Branch  of  the  Sanitary 
Commission,  and  with  great  unanimity  elected  Mrs.  Maria  C. 
Grier  as  their  President,  and  Mrs.  Clara  J.  Moore,  Corresponding 
Secretary.  Wiser  or  more  appropriate  selections  could  not  have 
been  made.  They  were  unquestionably,  "the  right  women  in 
the  right  place."  Our  readers  will  pardon  us  for  sketching  briefly 
the  previous  experiences  and  labors  of  these  two  ladies  who 
proved  so  wonderfully  efficient  in  this  new  sphere  of  action. 

Mrs.  Maria  C.  Grier  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Corne 
lius  C.  Cuyler,  a  clergyman,  formerly  pastor  of  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church  in  Poughkeepsie,  and  afterward  of  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church,  Philadelphia,  and  married  Rev.  M.  B. 
Grier,  D.  D.,  now  editor  of  the  "  Presbyterian,"  one  of  the  lead 
ing  papers  of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church.  Dr.  Grier 
had  been  for  some  years  before  the  commencement  of  the  war 
pastor  of  a  Presbyterian  Church  in  Wilmington,  North  Carolina. 
Wilmington,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  shared  with  Charleston 


598 

and  Mobile  the  bad  reputation  of  being  the  most  intensely  dis 
loyal  of  all  the  towns  of  the  South.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Grier  were 
openly  and  decidedly  loyal,  known  everywhere  throughout  that 
region  as  among  the  very  few  who  had  the  moral  courage  to  avow 
their  attachment  to  the  Union.  They  knew  very  well,  that  their 
bold  avowals  might  cost  them  their  lives,  but  they  determined 
for  the  sake  of  those  who  loved  the  Union,  but  had  not  their 
courage,  to  remain  and  advocate  the  cause,  until  it  should  become 
impossible  to  do  so  longer,  bearing  in  mind  that  if  they  escaped, 
their  departure,  to  be  safe,  must  be  sudden. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  June  word  was  brought 
them  that  there  was  no  time  to  lose.  Dr.  Grier's  life  was  threat 
ened.  A  vessel  was  ready  to  sail  and  they  must  go.  Hurriedly 
they  left  a  home  endeared  to  them  by  long  years  of  residence; 
Dr.  Grier's  valuable  library,  a  choice  collection  of  paintings  and 
other  treasures  of  art  and  affection  were  all  abandoned  to  the 
ruthless  mob,  and  were  stolen  or  destroyed.  Leaving  their 
breakfast  untouched  upon  the  table,  they  hastened  to  the  vessel, 
and  by  a  circuitous  route,  at  last  reached  Philadelphia  in  safety, 
and  were  welcomed  by  kind  and  sympathizing  friends.  Mrs. 
Grier's  patriotism  was  of  the  active  kind,  and  she  was  very  soon 
employed  among  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  who  reached 
Philadelphia  after  Bull  Run  and  Ball's  Bluff,  or  who  were  left 
by  the  regiments  hurrying  to  the  front  at  the  hospitals  of  the 
Volunteer  and  Cooper  Shop  Refreshment  Saloons.  With  the 
establishment  of  the  larger  hospitals  in  January,  1862,  Mrs.  Grier 
commenced  her  labors  in  them  also,  and  remained  busy  in  this 
work  till  June,  1862,  when  at  the  request  of  the  surgeon  in  charge 
of  one  of  the  Hospital  Transports,  she  went  to  White  House, 
Virginia,  was  there  when  McClellan  made  his  "change  of  base," 
and  when  the  wounded  were  sent  on  board  the  transport  cared 
for  them  and  came  on  to  Philadelphia,  with  them,  and  resumed 
her  work  at  once  in  the  hospitals.  The  battles  of  Pope's  cam 
paign  and  those  of  South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  filled  the  land 


PENNSYLVANIA  BRANCH  OF  U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION. 

with  desolate  homes,  and  crowded  not  only  the  hospitals,  but  the 
churches  of  Philadelphia  with  suffering,  wounded  and  dying  men, 
and  Mrs.  Grier  like  most  of  the  philanthropic  ladies  of  Philadel 
phia  found  abundant  employment  for  heart  and  hands.  Her  zeal 
and  faithfulness  in  this  work  had  so  favorably  impressed  the 
ladies  who  met  at  the  Academy  of  Music  to  organize  the  Women's 
Branch  of  the  Commission  that  she  was  unanimously  chosen  its 
President. 

Mrs.  Clara  J.  Moore,  formerly  a  Miss  Jessup,  of  Boston,  is  the 
wife  of  Mr.  Bloomneld  H.  Moore,  a  large  manufacturer  of  Phila 
delphia.  She  is  a  woman  of  high  culture,  a  poetess  of  rare  sweet 
ness,  and  eminent  as  a  magazine  writer.  She  possessed  great 
energy,  and  a  rare  facility  of  correspondence.  In  her  days  of 
Hospital  work,  she  wrote  hundreds  of  letters  for  the  soldiers,  and 
in  the  organization  of  the  Women's  Branch,  of  which  she  was 
one  of  the  most  active  promoters,  she  took  upon  herself  the  bur 
den  of  such  a  correspondence  with  the  Auxiliaries,  and  the  persons 
whom  she  desired  to  interest  in  the  establishment  of  local  Aid 
Societies,  that  when  she  was  compelled  by  ill  health  to  resign  her 
position,  a  Committee  of  nine  young  ladies  was  appointed  to  con 
duct  the  correspondence  in  her  place,  and  all  the  nine  found  am 
ple  employment.  Her  daughter  married  a  Swedish  Count,  and 
returned  with  him  to  Europe,  and  the  mother  soon  after  sought 
rest  and  recovery  in  her  daughter's  Scandinavian  home. 

Of  the  other  ladies  connected  with  this  Pennsylvania  Branch, 
all  were  active,  but  the  ibl lowing,  perhaps  in  part  from  tempera 
ment,  and  in  part  from  being  able  to  devote  their  time  more  fully 
than  others  to  the  work,  were  peculiarly  efficient  and  faithful. 
Mrs.  W.  H.  Furness,  Mrs.  Lathrop,  Mrs.  C.  J.  StilM,  Mrs.  J. 
Tevis,  Mrs.  E.  D.  Gillespie,  Mrs.  A.  D.  Jessup,  Mrs.  Samuel  H. 
Clapp,  Mrs.  J.  Warner  Johnson,  Mrs.  Samuel  Field,  Mrs.  Aub 
rey  H.  Smith,  Mrs.  M.  L.  Frederick,  Mrs.  C.  Graff,  Mrs.  Joseph 
Parrish,  Miss  M.  M.  Duane,  Miss  S.  B.  Dunlap,  Miss  Rachel 


600 

W.  Morris,  Miss  H.  and  Miss  Anna  Blanchard,  Miss  E.  P.  Haw- 
ley,  and  Miss  M.  J.  Moss. 

Of  Mrs.  Grier's  labors  in  this  position,  one  of  the  Associates 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  a  gentleman  who  had  more  oppor 
tunity  than  most  others  of  knowing  her  faithful  and  persistent 
work,  writes : 

"  When  the  Women's  Branch  was  organized,  Mrs.  Grier  re 
luctantly  consented  to  take  the  head  of  the  Supply  Department. 
In  this  position  she  continued,  working  most  devotedly,  until  the 
work  was  done.  To  her  labors  the  success  of  this  undertaking 
is  largely  due.  To  every  quality  which  makes  woman  admired 
and  loved,  this  lady  added  many  which  peculiarly  qualified  her 
for  this  post;  a  rare  judgment,  a  wonderful  power  of  organiza 
tion,  and  a  rare  facility  for  drawing  around  her  the  most  efficient 
helpers,  and  making  their  labors  most  useful.  During  the  whole 
period  of  the  existence  of  the  Association,  the  greatest  good  feel 
ing  reigned,  and  if  ever  differences  of  opinion  threatened  to  in 
terrupt  perfect  harmony,  a  word  from  Mrs.  Grier  was  sufficient. 
Her  energy  in  carrying  out  new  plans  for  the  increase  of  the  sup 
plies  was  most  remarkable.  When  the  Women's  Pennsylvania 
Branch  disbanded,  every  person  conected  with  it,  regretted  most 
of  all  the  separation  from  Mrs.  Grier.  I  have  never  heard  but 
one  opinion  expressed  of  her  as  President  of  the  Association." 

A  lady,  who,  from  her  own  labors  in  the  field,  and  in  the  pro 
motion  of  the  benevolent  plans  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  was 
brought  into  close  and  continued  intercourse  with  her,  says  of 
her: 

"  She  gave  to  the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  all  the 
energies  of  her  mind, — never  faltering,  or  for  a  moment  deterred 
by  the  many  unforeseen  annoyances  and  trials  incident  to  the 
position.  The  great  Sanitary  Fair  added  to  the  cares  by  which 
she  was  surrounded  ;  but  that  was  carried  through  so  successfully 
and  triumphantly,  that  all  else  was  forgotten  in  the  joy  of  know 
ing  how  largely  the  means  of  usefulness  was  now  increased.  Her 


PENNSYLVANIA  BHANCH  OF  U.  S.  SANITAIIY  COMMISSION.     601 

labors  ceased  not  until  the  war  was  ended,  and  the  Sanitary  Com 
mission  was  no  longer  required.  Those  only  who  have  known 
her  in  the  work,  can  form  an  idea  of  the  vast  amount  of  labor 
it  involved. 

"  With  an  extract  from  the  final  report  of  the  Women's  Penn 
sylvania  Branch,  made  in  the  spring  of  1866,  which  shows  the 
character  and  extent  of  the  work  accomplished,  we  close  our  ac 
count  of  this  very  efficient  organization. 

"On  the  26th  of  March,  1863,  the  supply  department  of  the 
Philadelphia  agency  was  transferred  to  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Women's  Pennsylvania  Branch.  A  large  and  commodious 
building,  Number  1307  Chestnut  Street,  was  rented,  and  the  new 
organization  commenced  its  work.  How  rapidly  the  work  grew, 
and  how  greatly  its  results  exceeded  our  anticipations  are  now 
matters  of  pleasant  memory  with  us  all.  The  number  of  con 
tributing  Aid  Societies  was  largely  increased  in  a  few  weeks,  and 
this  was  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  augmentation  of  the 
supplies  received.  The  summer  came,  and  with  it  sanguinary 
Gettysburg,  with  its  heaps  of  slain  and  wounded,  giving  the  most 
powerful  impulse  to  every  loving,  patriotic  heart.  Supplies  flowed 
in  largely,  and  from  every  quarter;  and  we  found  that  our  work 
was  destined  to  be  no  mere  holiday  pastime,  no  matter  of  sudden 
impulse,  but  that  it  would  require  all  the  thought,  all  the  time, 
all  the  energy  we  could  possibly  bring  to  bear  upon  it.  We  had 
indeed  put  on  the  armor,  to  take  it  off  only  when  soldiers  were 
no  more  needed  on  our  country's  battle-fields,  because  the  flag  of 
the  Union  was  waving  again  from  every  one  of  her  cities  and 
fortresses.  Then  came  the  bloody  battles  and  glorious  victories, 
with  their  depressing  and  their  exhilarating  effects.  But,  through 
the  clouds  and  through  the  sunshine  alike,  our  armies  marched 
on,  fought  on,  steadily  and  persistently  advancing  towards  their 
final  triumph.  And  so  in  the  cities,  in  the  villages,  in  the  quiet 
country  homes,  in  the  luxurious  parlor,  in  the  rustic  kitchen, 
everywhere,  always,  the  women  of  the  country  too  pursued  their 

76 


602  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

patriotic,  loving  work,  content  if  the  toil  of  their  busy  fingers 
might  carry  comfort  to  even  a  few  of  our  bleeding,  heroic  sol 
diers.  And  as  they  labored  in  their  various  spheres,  the  results 
of  their  work  poured  into  the  great  centres  where  supplies  were 
collected  for  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Our  Department  came  to 
number  over  three  hundred  and  fifty  contributing  Societies, 
besides  a  large  number  of  individuals  contributing  with  almost 
the  regularity  of  our  auxiliaries.  Associate  Managers,  whose 
business  it  was  to  supervise  the  work  in  their  own  neighborhoods, 
had  been  appointed  in  nearly  every  county  of  the  entire  Depart 
ment,  fifty-six  Associate  Managers  in  all.  The  time  came  when 
the  work  of  corresponding  with  these  was  too  vast  to  be  attended 
to  by  only  one  Corresponding  Secretary.  The  lady  who  had  filled 
that  office  with  great  ability,  and  to  whose  energetic  zeal  our 
organization  owed  its  first  impulse,  was  compelled  by  ill  health 
to  resign.  Her  place  was  filled  by  a  Committee  of  nine,  among 
whom  the  duty  of  correspondence  was  systematically  divided. 
The  work  of  our  Associate  Managers  deserves  more  than  the  pass 
ing  tribute  which  this  report  can  give.  They  were  nearly  all  of 
them  women  whose  home  duties  gave  them  little  leisure,  and  yet 
the  existence  of  most  of  our  Aid  Societies  is  due  to  their  efforts. 
In  one  of  the  least  wealthy  and  populous  counties  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  one  faithful,  earnest  woman  succeeded  in  establishing  thirty 
Aid  Societies.  When  the  Great  Central  Fair  was  projected  their 
services  were  found  most  valuable  in  the  counties  under  their 
several  superintendence,  and  they  deserve  a  share  of  the  credit 
for  the  magnificent  success  of  that  splendid  undertaking. 

"The  total  cash  value  of  supplies  received  is  three  hundred 
and  six  thousand  and  eighty-eight  dollars  and  one  cent.  Of  this 
amount,  twenty-six  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty-nine  dol 
lars  were  contributed  to  the  Philadelphia  Agency  before  the  for 
mation  of  the  Women's  Branch.  The  whole  number  of  boxes, 
barrels,  etc.,  received  since  the  1st  of  April,  1863,  is  fifty-three 
hundred  and  twenty -nine.  Of  these  packages,  twenty-one  him- 


PENNSYLVANIA  BRANCH  OF  U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION.     603 

tired  and  three  were  received,  from  April  1st,  1863,  until  the 
close  of  the  year;  twenty-one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  were 
received  in  1864;  and  one  thousand  and  twenty-seven  have  been 
received  since  January  1st,  1865.  During  the  present  year,  three 
hundred  and  ninety-six  boxes  have  been  shipped  to  various  points 
where  they  were  needed  for  the  Army,  and  sixteen  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  were  sent  to  the  central  office  at  Washington  City. 
The  last  item  includes  the  transfer  of  stock  upon  closing  the  depot 
of  this  Agency.  The  total  number  of  boxes  shipped  from  the 
Women's  Pennsylvania  Branch,  since  April  1st,  1863,  is  two 
thousand  and  ninety-five.  This  means,  of  course,  the  articles 
contributed  by  Societies,  and  does  not  include  those  purchased  by 
the  Commission,  excepting  the  garments  made  by  the  Special 
Relief  Committee. 

"  At  length  our  work  is  done.  Our  army  is  disbanding,  and 
we  too  must  follow  their  lead.  No  more  need  of  our  daily  Com 
mittee  and  their  pleasant  aids,  to  unpack  and  assort  supplies  for 
our  sick  and  wounded.  God  has  given  us  peace  at  last.  Shall 
we  ever  sufficiently  thank  him  for  this  crowning  happiness? 
Rather  shall  we  not  thank  him,  by  refusing  ever  again  to  be  idle 
spectators  when  he  has  work  to  be  done  for  any  form  of  suffering 
humanity?  And  if  our  country  shall,  after  its  baptism  of  blood 
and  of  fire,  be  found  to  possess  a  race  of  better,  nobler  American 
women,  with  quickened  impulses,  high  thoughts,  and  capable  of 
heroic  deeds,  shall  not  the  praise  be  chiefly  due  to  the  better, 
nobler  aims  set  before  them  by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com 
mission? 

"  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  expenses  of  the  Supply  Depart 
ment,  from  the  time  of  its  organization  to  January  1st,  1866. 
These  charges  were  incurred  upon  goods  purchased  in  this  city, 
as  well  as  upon  those  contributed  to  the  Women's  Pennsylvania 
Branch.  Their  total  value  is  five  hundred  and  ninety-six 
thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty-eight  dollars  and  ninety-seven 
cents/' 


604 


Eentof  Depository $2,876  66 

Wm.  Platt,  Jr.,  Superintendent,  for  expenses  incurred  by  him  on 

supplies  contributed  2,159  73 

Salary  of  Storekeeper  and  Porter 3,093  50 

Freight,  express  charges,  cartage 7,115  22 

Boxes  and  material  for  packing 261  78 

Labor,  extra 352  96 

Printing  and  Stationery   928  49 

Advertising 2,310  59 

Fuel  and  Lights 344  03 

Fitting  up  Depository,  including  repairs  619  13 

Insurance  on  Stock  w 244  00 

Postages  .' 940  66 

Miscellaneous  ...  668  11 


Total $21,914  86 


RELIEF  COMMITTEE. — This  Committee  was  organized  in 
April,  1863,  and  had  for  its  object,  during  the  first  months  of  its 
existence,  the  relief  of  the  wants  of  soldiers ;  but  finding  a  Com 
mittee  of  women  unequal  to  the  proper  performance  of  this  duty, 
and  at  the  same  time  having  had  brought  before  them  the  great 
necessities  of  the  families  of  our  volunteers,  they  resigned  to 
other  hands  the  care  of  the  soldiers,  and  determined  to  devote 
themselves  to  the  mothers,  wives,  -and  children,  of  those  who  had 
gone  forth  to  battle  for  the  welfare  of  all. 

The  rooms  in  which  this  work  has  been  carried  on,  are  at  the 
South-east  corner  of  Thirteenth  and  Chestnut  streets. 

Two  Committees  have  been  in  attendance  daily  to  receive  ap 
plications  for  relief,  work,  fuel,  etc.  Persons  thus  applying  for 
aid  are  required  to  furnish  proof  that  their  sons  or  husbands  were 
actually  soldiers,  and  are  also  obliged  to  bring  from  some  respon 
sible  party  a  certificate  of  their  own  honesty  and  sobriety.  It 
then  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Committee  in  charge  to  visit  the 
applicant,  and  to  afford  such  aid  as  may  be  needed. 

The  means  for  supplying  this  aid  have  been  furnished  princi 
pally  through  generous  monthly  subscriptions  from  a  few  citizens, 


PENNSYLVANIA  BRANCH  OF  U.  S.  SANITARY  COMMISSION.     605 

through  the  hands  of  Mr.  A.  D.  Jessup.  Donations  and  sub 
scriptions,  through  the  ladies  of  the  Committee,  have  also  been 
received,  and  from  time  to  time,  acknowledged  in  the  printed  re 
ports  of  the  Committee. 

It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Committee  to  provide  employment 
for  the  women,  for  which  adequate  compensation  has  been  given. 
The  Sanitary  Commission  furnished  material,  which  the  Relief 
Committee  had  cut  and  converted  into  articles  required  for  the 
use  of  the  soldiers  by  the  Sanitary  Commission.  Thirty-seven 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifteen  articles  have  been  made  and 
returned  to  the  Commission,  free  of  charge.  Finding  the  supply 
of  work  from  this  source  inadequate  to  the  demands  for  it,  the 
Committee  decided  to  obtain  work  from  Government  contractors, 
and  to  pay  the  women  double  the  price  paid  by  the  contractors. 
Twenty  thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy-four  articles  were 
made  in  this  way,  and  returned  to  the  contractors  who  were  kind 
enough  to  furnish  the  work.  Eleven  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
articles  have  been  made  for  the  freedmen,  and  five  hundred  and 
five  for  other  charities ;  making  in  all,  fifty-nine  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-three  articles. 

Eight  hundred  and  thirty  women  have  been  employed  in  the 
two  years  during  which  the  labors  of  the  Committee  have  been 
carried  on ;  and  it  is  due  to  the  women  thus  employed  to  state, 
that  of  the  number  of  garments  made,  but  two  have  been  miss 
ing  through  dishonesty. 

The  sources  from  which  work  has  hitherto  been  obtained  hav 
ing  failed,  through  the  blessed  return  of  peace,  and  the  destitu 
tion  being  great  among  those  near  and  dear  to  the  men  whose 
lives  have  been  given  to  purchase  that  peace,  the  Committee  have 
determined  not  to  cease  their  labors  during  the  present  winter. 

Two  hundred  women,  principally  widows,  are  now  employed 
in  making  garments  from  materials  furnished  by  the  Committee. 
These  garments  are  distributed  to  the  most  needy  among  the  ap 
plicants  for  relief. 


606 

More  than  four  hundred  tons  of  coal  have  been  given  out  to 
the  needy  families  of  soldiers  during  the  past  two  years,  the  coal 
being  the  gift  of  a  few  coal  merchants. 

The  receipts  of  the  Committee  have  been  as  follows : 

From  Subscriptions  and  donations $28,300  00 

From  Entertainment  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  Committee 1,444  00 

From  Contractors  in  payment  for  work  done 1,681  31 

From  the  Sanitary  Commission 2,551  50 

Total $33,976  81 


This  amount  has  all  been  expended,  with  the  exception  of 
two  hundred  and  forty-eight  dollars  and  forty-seven  cents,  which 
balance  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Treasurer  on  the  31st  of 
December,  1865. 


WISCONSIN  SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY. 


ARLY  in  the  summer  of  1861,  Mrs.  Margaret  A. 
Jackson,  widow  of  the  late  Rev.  William  Jackson,  of 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  connection  with  Mrs.  Louisa 
M.  Delafield  and  others,  engaged  in  awakening  an 
interest  among  the  ladies  of  Milwaukee,  in  regard  to  the  sanitary 
wants  of  the  soldiers,  which  soon  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a 
"Milwaukee  Ladies'  Soldiers'  Aid  Society/7  composed  of  many 
of  the  benevolent  ladies  of  this  city.  The  society  was  very  zeal 
ous  in  soliciting  aid  for  the  soldiers,  and  in  making  garments  for 
their  use  in  the  service. 

Very  soon  other  Aid  Societies  in  various  parts  of  the  State 
desired  to  become  auxiliaries  to  this  organization,  and  soon  after 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run  it  became  evident  that  their  efficiency 
could  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  Milwaukee  Society  becoming  a 
branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  and  that  rela 
tion  was  effected.  The  name  of  the  society  was  at  this  time 
changed  to  "  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Aid  Society."  Mrs.  Jackson 
and  Mrs.  Delafield  continued  to  be  efficient  as  leaders  in  all  the 
work  of  this  society,  but  in  its  reorganization,  Mrs.  Henrietta  L. 
Colt  was  chosen  Corresponding  Secretary,  and  commenced  her 
work  with  great  zeal  and  energy.  She  visited  the  Wisconsin  sol 
diers  in  various  localities  at  the  front,  and  thus  brought  the 
wants  of  the  brave  men  to  the  particular  knowledge  of  the  society, 
and  in  this  way  largely  promoted  the  interest,  zeal  and  efficiency 
of  the  ladies  connected  with  it.  She  described  the  sufferings, 

607 


608 

fortitude  and  heroism  of  the  soldiers  with  such  simple  pathos, 
that  thousands  of  hearts  were  melted,  and  contributions  poured 
into  the  treasury  of  the  society  in  great  abundance. 

The  number  of  auxiliaries  in  the  State  was  two  hundred  and 
twenty-nine.  The  central  organization  at  Milwaukee,  beside  fort- 
warding  supplies,  had  one  bureau  to  assist  soldiers'  families  in 
getting  payments  from  the  State,  one  to  secure  employment  for 
soldiers'  wives  and  mothers  through  contracts  with  the  Govern 
ment,  under  the  charge  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  one  to  secure  employ 
ment  for  the  partially  disabled  soldiers,  and  one  to  provide  for 
widows  and  orphans.  The  channels  of  benevolence  through  the 
State  were  various;  the  people  generally  sought  the  most  direct 
route  to  the  soldiers  in  the  field;  but  the  gifts  to  the  army  sent 
by  the  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  (their  report  says  without 
any  "Fair"),  alone  amounted — the  packages,  to  nearly  six  thou 
sand  in  number,  the  value  to  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  Wisconsin  Aid  Society  and  its  officers  also  rendered  large 
and  valuable  aid  to  the  two  Sanitary  Fairs  held  in  Chicago  in 
September,  1863,  and  June,  1865. 

The  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Home,  at  Milwaukee,  connected  with 
the  Wisconsin  Aid  Society,  was  an  institution  of  great  import 
ance  during  the  war.  Its  necessity  has  not  passed  away,  and 
will  not  for  many  years.  The  ladies  who  originated  and  sus 
tained  it  were  indefatigable  in  their  labors,  and  the  benevolent 
public  gave  them  their  heartiest  sanction.  It  gave  thousands  of 
soldiers  a  place  of  entertainment  as  they  passed  through  the  city 
to  and  from  the  army,  and  thus  promoted  their  comfort  and  good 
morals.  The  sick  and  wrounded  were  there  tenderly  nursed;  the 
dying  stranger  there  had  friends. 

During  the  year  ending  April  15,  1865,  four  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  forty-two  soldiers  there  received  free  entertainment, 
and  the  total  number  of  meals  served  in  the  year  was  seventeen 
thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-six,  an  average  of  forty-eight 
daily.  These  soldiers  represented  twenty  different  States,  two 


WISCONSIN  SOLDIERS'  AID  SOCIETY.  609 

thousand  and  ninety  belonging  in  Wisconsin.  A  fair  in  1865 
realized  up  wards  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  which  is  to  be 
expended  on  a  permanent  Soldiers'  Home,  one  of  the  three 
National  Soldiers'  Homes  having  been  located  at  Milwaukee,  and 
the  Wisconsin  Soldiers7  Home  being  the  nucleus  of  it. 

Mrs.  Colt  was  so  efficient  a  worker  for  the  soldiers,  that  a  brief 
sketch  of  her  labors,  prepared  by  a  personal  friend,  will  be  ap 
propriate  in  this  connection. 

MRS.  HENRIETTA  L.  COLT,  was  born  March  16th,  1812,  in 
Rensselaerville,  Albany  County,  New  York.  Her  maiden  name 
was  Peckham.  She  was  educated  in  a  seminary  at  Albany,  and 
was  married  in  1830,  to  Joseph  S.  Colt,  Esq.,  a  man  well  known 
throughout  the  State,  as  an  accomplished  Christian  gentleman. 
Mr.  Colt  wras  a  member  of  the  Albany  bar,  and  practiced  his 
profession  there  until  1853,  when  he  removed  to  Milwaukee. 
After  three  years'  residence  there  he  returned  to  New  York, 
where  he  died,  leaving  an  honored  name  and  a  precious  memory 
among  men. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Colt  brought  to  his  widow  a  sad  experience. 
In  a  letter  to  the  Avriter,  she  expresses  the  deep  sense  of  her  loss, 
and  the  effect  it  had  in  preparing  her  for  that  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  her  country,  which,  during  the  late  rebellion,  has  led 
her  to  leave  the  comforts  and  refinements  of  her  home  to  minis 
ter  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Union,  in  hospitals,  to  labor  in  the  work 
of  the  Wisconsin  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  to  go  on  hospital  steamers 
as  far  as  Vicksburg  to  care  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  as  they 
were  brought  up  the  river,  where  they  could  be  better  provided 
for,  to  visit  the  camps  and  regimental  hospitals  around  the  belea- 
gured  city,  and  to  return  with  renewed  devotion  to  the  work  of 
sending  sanitary  supplies  to  the  sick  and  wounded  of  the  Union 
army,  until  the  close  of  the  war.  After  portraying  the  character 
of  her  lamented  husband,  his  chivalric  tenderness,  his  thoughtful 
affection,  his  nobility  of  soul,  his  high  sense  of  justice,  which  had 
made  him  a  representative  of  the  best  type  of  humanity,  she  goes 

77 


610  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

on  to  say :  "  The  son  seemed  to  me  to  go  out  in  darkness  when 
lie  went  to  the  skies.  Shielding  me  from  every  want,  from  all 
care,  causing  me  to  breathe  a  continual  atmosphere  of  refinement, 
and  love,  and  happiness,  when  he  went,  life  lost  its  beauty  and  its 
charm.  In  this  state  of  things  it  Avas  to  me  as  a  divine  gift — a 
real  godsend — to  have  a  chance  for  earnest  absorbing  work.  The 
very  first  opportunity  was  seized  to  throw  myself  into  the  work 
for  my  country,  which  had  called  its  stalwart  sons  to  arms  to 
defend  its  integrity,  its  liberty,  its  very  existence,  from  the  most 
gigantic  and  wicked  rebellion  known  in  history ." 

It  is  among  the  grateful  memories  of  the  writer  of  this  sketch, 
that  during  the  winter  of  1863,  while  stationed  at  Helena,  he 
went  on  board  a  steamer  passing  towards  Vicksburg,  and  met 
there  Mrs.  Colt,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Livermore,  and  Mrs. 
Hoge,  of  Chicago,  on  their  way  to  carry  sanitary  stores,  and  min 
ister  to  the  sick  and  wounded,  then  being  brought  up  the  river 
from  the  first  fatal  attack  on  Vicksburg,  in  which  our  army  was 
repulsed,  and  from  the  battle  of  Arkansas  Post,  on  the  Arkansas 
river,  in  which  we  were  successful,  and  from  an  expedition  up  the 
White  river,  under  General  Gorman.  He  was  greatly  impressed 
with  her  intelligence,  her  purity  of  character,  the  beautiful  blend 
ing  of  her  religious  and  patriotic  tendencies,  the  gentleness  and 
tenderness  with  which  she  ministered  encouragement  and  sympa 
thy  to  the  sick  soldier,  and  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  womanly 
dignity  that  marked  her  manners  and  conversation.  The  same 
qualities  were  characteristic  of  her  companions  from  Chicago,  in 
varied  combination,  each  having  her  own  individuality,  and  it 
was  beautiful  to  see  with  what  judgment  and  discretion,  and  union 
of  purpose  they  went  on  their  mission  of  love. 

On  their  first  visit,  she  and  Mrs.  Hoge,  improvised  a  hospital 
of  the  steamer  on  which  they  went,  which  came  up  from  Vicks 
burg  loaded  with  wounded  men,  under  the  care  of  the  surgeons. 
The  dressing  of  their  wounds  and  the  amputation  of  limbs  going 
on  during  the  passage,  made  the  air  exceedingly  impure,  and  yet 


613 

In  such  services  as  these  Mrs.  Colt  passed  the  four  years 
of  the  war,  and  by  her  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  to  the  cause,  in 
which  her  heart  and  mind  were  warmly  enlisted,  by  the 
courage  and  fortitude  with  which  she  braved  danger  and 
death,  in  visiting  distant  battle-fields,  and  camps  and  hospitals, 
and  ministering  at  the  couch  of  sickness,  and  pain,  and  death, 
that  she  might  revive  the  spirit,  and  save  the  lives  of  those  who 
were  battling  for  Union  and  Liberty,  she  has  won  the  gratitude 
of  her  country,  and  deserves  the  place  accorded  to  her  among  the 
heroines  of  the  age. 

MRS.  ELIZA  SALOMON,  the  accomplished  and  philanthropic 
wife  of  Governor  Salomon,  of  Wisconsin,  was  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  living  quietly  at  Milwaukee,  and  amid  the  patriotic  fer 
vor  which  then  reigned  in  Wisconsin,  she  sought  no  prominence 
or  official  position,  but  like  the  other  ladies  of  the  circle  in  which 
she  moved,  contented  herself  with  working  diligently  for  the  sol 
diers,  and  contributing  for  the  supply  of  their  needs.  In  the 
autumn  of  1861,  her  husband  was  elected  Lieutenant  Governor 
of  the  State,  on  the  same  ticket  which  bore  the  name  of  the  la 
mented  Louis  Harvey,  for  Governor.  On  the  death  of  Governor 
Harvey,  in  April,  1862,  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Salomon  was  at  once  advanced  by  the  Constitution  of  Wis 
consin,  to  his  place  for  the  remainder  of  his  term,  about  twenty- 
one  months.  Both  Governor  and  Mrs.  Salomon,  were  of  German 
extraction,  and  it  was  natural  that  the  German  soldiers,  sick, 
wounded  or  suffering  from  privation,  should  look  to  the  Gov 
ernor's  wife  as  their  State-mother,  and  should  expect  sympathy 
and  aid  from  her.  She  resolved  not  to  disappoint  their  expecta 
tion,  but  to  prove  as  far  as  lay  in  her  power  a  mother  not  only  to 
them,  but  to  all  the  brave  Wisconsin  boys  of  whatever  nationality, 
who  needed  aid  and  assistance. 

At  home  and  abroad,  her  time  was  almost  entirely  occupied 
with  this  noble  and  charitable  work.  She  accompanied  her  hus 
band  wherever  his  duty  and  his  heart  called  him  to  look  after 


614 

the  soldiers.  She  visited  the  hospitals  East  and  West,  in  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  St.  Louis,  and  the  interior  of  Missouri,  and  all  along 
the  Mississippi,  as  far  South  as  Yicksburg,  stopping  at  every 
place  where  Wisconsin  troops  were  stationed. 

Her  voyage  to  Vicksburg  in  May,  1863,  was  one  of  consider 
able  peril,  from  the  swarms  of  guerrillas  all  along  the  river,  who 
on  several  occasions  fired  at  the  boat,  but  fortunately  did  no 
harm. 

She  found  at  Yicksburg,  a  vast  amount  of  suffering  to  be  re 
lieved,  and  abundant  work  to  do,  and  possessing  firm  health  and 
a  vigorous  constitution,  she  was  able  to  accomplish  much  without 
impairing  her  health.  At  the  first  Sanitary  Fair  at  Chicago,  Mrs. 
Salomon  organized  a  German  Department,  in  which  she  sold 
needle  and  handiwork  contributed  by  German  ladies  of  Wiscon 
sin  and  Chicago,  to  the  amount  of  six  thousand  dollars.  When, 
in  January  1864,  Governor  Salomon  returned  to  private  life, 
Mrs.  Salomon  did  not  intermit  her  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  sol 
diers  ;  her  duty  had  become  a  privilege,  and  she  continued  her 
efforts  for  their  relief  and  assistance,  according  to  her  opportunity 
till  the  end  of  the  war. 


PITTSBURG    BRANCH,    U.    S.   SANI 
TARY    COMMISSION. 


ITTSBURG,  as  the  Capital  of  Western  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  center  of  a  large  district  of  thoroughly  loyal 
citizens,  early  took  an  active  part  in  furnishing  sup 
plies  for  the  sick  and  wounded  of  our  armies.  As  its 
commercial  relations  and  its  readiest  communications  were  with 
the  West,  most  of  its  supplies  were  sent  to  the  Western  Armies, 
and  after  the  battle  of  Belmont,  the  capture  of  Fort  Donelson, 
and  the  terrible  slaughter  at  Shiloh,  the  Pittsburg  Subsistence 
Committee,  and  the  Pittsburg  Sanitary  Committee,  sent  ample 
supplies  and  stores  to  the  sufferers.  The  same  noble  generosity 
was  displayed  after  the  battles  of  Perryville,  Chickasaw  Bluffs, 
MurfreesboiV  and  Arkansas  Post.  In  the  winter  of  1863,  it  was 
deemed  best  to  make  the  Pittsburg  Sanitary  Committee,  which 
had  been  reorganized  for  the  purpose,  an  auxiliary  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,  and  measures  were  taken  for  that 
purpose  by  Mr.  Thomas  Bakewell,  the  President,  and  the  other 
officers  of  the  Committee.  The  Committee  still  retained  its 
name,  but  in  the  summer  of  1863,  a  consolidation  was  effected  of 
the  Sanitary  and  Subsistence  Committees,  and  the  Pittsburg 
Branch  of  the  Commission  was  organized.  Auxiliaries  had  pre 
viously  been  formed  in  the  circumjacent  country,  acknowledging 
one  or  the  other  of  these  Committees  as  their  head,  and  sending 
their  contributions  and  supplies  to  it.  The  number  of  these  was 
now  greatly  increased,  and  though  latest  in  the  order  of  time  of 

615 


616 

all  the  daughters  of  the  Commission,  it  was  surpassed  by  few  of 
the  others  in  efficiency.  The  Corresponding  Secretary  and  ac 
tive  manager  of  this  new  organization  was  Miss  Rachael  W.  Me 
Fadden,  a  lady  of  rare  executive  ability,  ardent  patriotism,  un 
tiring  industry,  and  great  tact  and  discernment.  Miss  McFad- 
den  was  ably  seconded  in  her  labors  by  Miss  Mary  Bissell,  Miss 
Bakewell,  and  Miss  Annie  Bell,  and  Miss  Ellen  E.  Murdoch, 
the  daughter  of  the  patriotic  actor  and  elocutionist,  gave  her 
services  with  great  earnestness  to  the  work.  In  the  spring  of 
1864,  the  people  of  Pittsburg,  infected  by  the  example  of  other 
cities,  determined  to  hold  a  Sanitary  Fair  in  their  enterprising 
though  smoke-crowned  city.  In  its  inception,  development  and 
completion,  Miss  McFadden  was  the  prime  mover  in  this  Fair. 
She  was  at  the  head  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  Miss  Bake- 
well,  Miss  Ella  Steward,  and  Mrs.  McMillan,  were  its  active  and 
indefatigable  Secretaries.  The  appeals  made  to  all  classes  in  city 
and  country  for  contributions  in  money  and  goods  were  promptly 
responded  to,  and  on  the  first  of  June,  1864,  the  Fair  opened  in 
buildings  expressly  erected  for  it  in  Alleghany,  Diamond  Square. 
The  display  in  all  particulars,  was  admirable,  but  that  of  the 
Mechanical  and  Floral  Halls  was  extraordinary  in  its  beauty,  its 
tasteful  arrangement  and  its  great  extent.  The  net  results  of  the 
Fair,  were  three  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  four  hundred  and 
ninety  dollars,  and  eighty  cents,  and  while  it  was  in  progress, 
fifty  thousand  dollars  were  also  raised  in  Pittsburg,  for  the  Chris 
tian  Commission.  The  great  Central  Fair  in  Philadelphia,  was 
at  the  same  time  in  progress,  so  that  the  bulk  of  the  contributions 
were  drawn  from  the  immediate  vicinage  of  Pittsburg. 

The  Pittsburg  Branch  continued  its  labors  to  the  close  of  the  war. 

After  the  fair,  a  special  diet  kitchen  on  a  grand  scale  was  es 
tablished  and  supplied  with  all  necessary  appliances  by  the  Pitts 
burg  Branch.  Miss  Murdoch  gave  it  her  personal  supervision 
for  three  months,  and  in  August,  1864,  prepared  sixty-two  thou 
sand  dishes. 


MRS.    ELIZABETH    S.    MENDENHALL. 


HIS  lady  and  Mrs.  George  Hoadly,  were  the  active  and 
efficient  managers  of  the  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  which  bore  the  same  relations  to  the  branch  of 
the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  at  Cincinnati, 
which  the  Woman's  Central  Association  of  Relief  did  to  the  San 
itary  Commission  itself.  Mrs.  Mendenhall  is  the  wife  of  Dr. 
George  Mendenhall,  an  eminent  and  public-spirited  citizen  of 
Cincinnati.  Mrs.  Mendenhall  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  in  1819, 
but  her  childhood  and  youth  were  passed  in  Richmond,  Virginia, 
where  a  sister,  her  only  near  relative,  still  resides.  Her  relatives 
belonged  to  the  society  of  Friends,  and  though  living  in  a  slave- 
holding  community,  she  grew  up  with  an  abhorrence  of  slavery. 
On  her  marriage,  in  1838,  she  removed  with  her  husband  to 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  subsequently  to  Cincinnati,  where  she  has 
since  resided,  and  where  her  hatred  of  oppression  increased  in 
intensity. 

AVlicn  the  first  call  for  troops  was  made  in  April,  1861,  and 
thenceforward  throughout  the  summer  and  autumn  of  that  year, 
and  the  winter  of  1861—2,  she  was  active  in  organizing  sewing 
circles  and  aid  societies  to  make  the  necessary  clothing  and  com 
forts  which  the  soldiers  so  much  needed  when  suddenly  called  to 
the  field.  She  set  the  example  of  untiring  industry  in  these  pur 
suits,  and  by  her  skill  in  organizing  and  systematizing  their  labor, 
rendered  them  highly  efficient.  In  February,  1862,  the  sick  and 
wounded  began  to  pour  into  the  government  hospitals  of  Cincin- 

78  617 


618 

nati,  from  the  siege  of  Fort  Donelson,  and  ere  these  were  fairly 
convalescent,  still  greater  numbers  came  from  Shiloh ;  and  from 
that  time  forward,  till  the  close  of  the  war,  the  hospitals  were 
almost  constantly  filled  with  sick  or  wounded  soldiers.  To  these 
suffering;  heroes  Mrs.  Mendenhall  devoted  herself  with  the  utmost 

O 

assiduity.  For  two  and  a  half  years  from  the  reception  of  the 
first  wounded  from  Fort  Donelson,  she  spent  half  of  every  day, 
and  frequently  the  whole  day,  in  personal  ministrations  to  the 
sick  and  wounded  in  any  capacity  that  could  add  to  their  com 
fort.  She  procured  necessaries  and  luxuries  for  the  sick,  waited 
upon  them,  wrote  letters  for  them,  consoled  the  dying,  gave  infor 
mation  to  their  friends  of  their  condition,  and  attended  to  the 
necessary  preparations  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.  During  the 
four  years  of  the  war  she  was  not  absent  from  the  city  for  plea 
sure  but  six  days,  and  during  the  whole  period  there  were  not 
more  than  ten  days  in  which  she  did  not  perform  some  labor  for 
the  soldiers7  comfort. 

Her  field  of  labor  was  in  the  four  general  hospitals  in  the  city, 
but  principally  in  the  Washington  Park  Hospital,  over  which 
Dr.  J.  B.  Smith,  who  subsequently  fell  a  martyr  to  his  devotion 
to  the  soldiers,  presided,  who  gave  her  ample  opportunities  for 
doing  all  for  the  patients  which  her  philanthropic  spirit  prompted. 
During  all  this  time  she  was  actively  engaged  in  the  promotion 
of  the  objects  of  the  Women's  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  of  which, 
she  was  at  this  time,  president,  having  been  from  the  first  an 
officer.  The  enthusiasm  manifested  in  the  northwest  in  behalf  of 
the  Sanitary  Fair  at  Chicago,  led  Mrs.  Mendenhall  to  believe  that 
a  similar  enterprise  would  be  feasible  in  Cincinnati,  which  should 
draw  its  supplies  and  patrons  from  all  portions  of  the  Ohio  valley. 
With  her  a  generous  and  noble  thought  was  sure  to  be  followed 
by  action  equally  generous  and  praiseworthy.  She  commenced  at 
once  the  agitation  of  the  subject  in  the  daily  papers  of  the  city, 
her  first  article  appearing  in  the  Times,  of  October  31,  1863,  and 
being  followed  by  others  from  her  pen  in  the  other  loyal  papers 


MRS.  ELIZABETH    S.  MENDEXHAKL.  619 

of  the  city.  The  idea  was  received  with  favor,  and  on  the  7th  of 
November  an  editorial  appeared  in  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  entitled 
"Who  speaks  for  Cincinnati?"  This  resulted  in  a  call  the  next 
day  for  a  meeting  of  gentlemen  to  consider  the  subject.  Com 
mittees  were  appointed,  an  organization  effected  and  circulars 
issued  on  the  13th  of  November.  On  the  19th,  the  ladies  met, 
and  Mrs.  Mendenhall  was  unanimously  chosen  President  of  the 
ladies7  committee,  and  subsequently  second  Vice-President  of  the 
General  Fair  organization,  General  Rosecrans  being  President, 
and  the  Mayor  of  the  city,  first  Vice-President.  To  the  further 
ance  of  this  work,  Mrs.  Mendenhall  devoted  all  her  energies. 
Eloquent  appeals  from  her  facile  pen  were  addressed  to  loyal  and 
patriotic  men  and  women  all  over  the  country,  and  a  special  cir 
cular  and  appeal  to  the  patriotic  young  ladies  of  Cincinnati  and 
the  Ohio  valley  for  their  hearty  co-operation  in  the  good  work. 
The  correspondence  and  supervision  of  that  portion  of  the  fair 
which  necessarily  came  under  the  direction  of  the  ladies,  required 
all  her  time  and  strength,  but  the  results  were  highly  satisfactory. 
Of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  which  was 
the  net  product  of  this  Sanitary  Fair,  a  very  liberal  proportion 
was  called  forth  by  her  indefatigable  exertions  and  her  extraordi 
nary  executive  ability. 

The  aggregate  results  of  the  labors  of  the  Women's  Aid  So 
ciety,  before  and  after  the  fair,  are  known  to  have  realized  about 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  money,  and  nearly  one  million 
five  hundred  thousand  in  hospital  stores  and  supplies. 

The  Soldiers'  Home  of  Cincinnati,  one  of  the  best  managed 
of  these  institutions,  was  also  established  by  the  energy  of  Mrs. 
Mendenhall,  and  her  associates.  Up  to  the  close  of  1864,  eighty 
thousand  soldiers  had  been  entertained  in  this  "  Home/'  and 
three  hundred  and  seventy-two  thousand  meals  dispensed.  They 
also  obtained  by  their  exertions,  a  burial  place  for  Ohio  soldiers, 
dying  in  Cincinnati,  at  the  Spring  Grove  Cemetery,  the  Trustees 


620 

of  the  Cemetery  giving  one  lot,  and  the  Legislature  purchasing 
two  more  at  a  small  price. 

The  fair  closed,  she  resumed  her  hospital  work  and  her  duties 
as  President  of  the  Women's  Soldiers7  Aid  Society,  and  continued 
to  perform  them  to  the  close  of  the  war.  Near  the  close  of  1864, 
she  exerted  her  energies  in  behalf  of  a  Fair  for  soldiers'  families, 
in  which  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  raised  for  this  deserving  object. 
The  testimonies  of  her  associates  to  the  admirable  manner  in  which 
her  hospital  work  was  performed  are  emphatic,  and  the  thousands 
of  soldiers  who  were  the  recipients  of  her  gentle  ministries,  give 
equally  earnest  testimonies  to  her  kindness  and  tenderness  of  heart. 

The  freedmen  and  refugees  have  also  shared  her  kindly  min 
istrations  and  her  open-handed  liberality,  and  since  the  close  of 
the  war  her  self-sacrificing  spirit  has  found  ample  employment  in 
endeavoring  to  lift  the  fallen  of  her  own  sex  out  of  the  depths  of 
degradation,  to  the  sure  and  safe  paths  of  virtue  and  rectitude. 

With  the  modesty  characteristic  of  a  patriotic  spirit,  Mrs.  Men- 
denhall  depreciates  her  own  labors  and  sacrifices.  "What,"  she 
says  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  "are  my  humble  efforts  for  the  sol 
diers,  compared  with  the  sacrifice  made  by  the  wife  or  mother  of 
the  humblest  private  who  ever  shouldered  a  musket?" 


DEPARTMENT   OF   THE   SOUTH. 


R.  M.  M.  MARSH  was  Medical  Inspector  of  the 
Department  of  the  Gulf  and  South,  his  charge  com 
prising  the  States  of  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and 
Florida.  He  held  his  appointment  in  the  capacity 
mentioned  from  the  Sanitary  Commission,  and  from  Govern 
ment,  the  latter  conferring  upon  him  great  authority  over  hos 
pitals  and  health  matters  in  general  throughout  his  district. 

It  was  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1863  that  Mrs.  Marsh  left 
her  home  in  Vermont  and  joined  her  husband  at  Beaufort. 

The  object  of  Mrs.  Marsh  in  going  thither,  was  to  establish  a 
home  with  its  comforts  amidst  the  unfamiliar  scenes  and  habi 
tudes  of  the  South. 

Everything  was  strange,  unnatural,  unreal.  Beaufort  was  in 
conquered  territory  occupied  by  its  conquerors  The  former 
inhabitants  had  fled,  leaving  lands,  houses  and  negroes — all  that 
refused  to  go  with  them,  or  could  not  be  removed.  Military 
rule  prevailed,  and  the  new  population  were  Northern  soldiers, 
and  a  few  adventurous  women.  Besides  these  were  blacks,  men, 
women  and  children,  many  of  them  far  from  the  homes  they  had 
known,  and  strange  alike  to  freedom  and  a  life  made  independent 
by  their  own  efforts.  From  order  to  chaos,  that  was  the  transi 
tion  a  Northern  woman  underwent  in  coming  to  this  place  and 
state  of  society. 

Mrs.  Marsh  had  no  sooner  arrived  than  she  found  there  was 
work  to  do  and  duties  to  perform  in  her  new  home  on  which  she 

621 


622  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

had  not  calculated.  Her  husband  was  frequently  absent,  some 
times  for  long  periods.  To  his  charge  came  the  immense  stores 
of  supplies  constantly  forwarded  by  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
which  were  to  be  received,  accounted  for,  unpacked,  dealt  out  to 
the  parties  for  whom  they  were  intended.  All  this  must  be  done 
by  an  intelligent  person  or  persons,  and  by  the  same,  reports  of 
the  condition  of  the  hospitals  must  be  made,  together  with  the 
needful  requisitions. 

Here  was  business  enough  to  employ  the  time,  exhaust  the 
strength,  and  occupy  the  thoughts  of  any  single  individual.  It 
was  a  "  man's  work/7  as  Mrs.  Marsh  often  declares.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  it  was  accomplished  by  a  woman,  and  in  the  most  admi 
rable  manner.  The  Sanitary  Commission  feels  both  proud  and 
grateful,  whenever  the  name  of  Mrs.  Marsh  is  mentioned. 

Her  services  were  not  of  a  nature  to  elicit  great  applause,  or  to 
attract  much  attention.  They  were  quietly  performed,  and  at  a 
point  quite  aside  from  battle-fields,  or  any  great  center  where 
thousands  of  spectators  had  the  opportunity  to  become  cognizant 
of  them.  But  they  were  not,  on  account  of  these  facts,  less  bene 
ficent  or  useful. 

Mrs.  Marsh  often  visited  the  hospitals  and  made  the  acquaint 
ance  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  becoming  frequently,  deeply  inte 
rested  in  individuals.  This  was  a  feeling  entirely  different  from 
that  general  interest  in  the  welfare  of  every  Union  soldier  which 
arose  as  much  from  the  instincts  of  a  patriotic  heart,  as  from 
philanthropy. 

She  never  became  a  hospital  nurse,  however,  for  she  was  fully 
occupied  in  other  ways,  and  her  husband,  Dr.  Marsh  did  not 
cordially  approve,  save  in  a  few  particular  instances,  of  the  intro 
duction  of  women  to  the  hospitals  in  that  capacity.  But  living 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  hospitals,  her  benevolent  face 
was  often  seen  there,  and  welcomed  with  grateful  smiles  from 
many  a  bed  of  suffering, 

A  young  officer  from  one  of  the  Northern  States  and  regiments, 


DEPARTMENT    OF    THE    SOUTH.  623 

wounded  at  the  battle  of  Olustee,  was  brought  to  Beaufort  Hos 
pital  for  treatment  and  care.  Long  previously  there  had  been  a 
compact  between  him  and  a  comrade  that  the  one  first  wounded 
should  be  cared  for  by  the  other  if  possible.  The  exigencies  of 
the  service  were  at  that  time  such  that  this  comrade  could  not 
without  much  difficulty  obtain  leave  of  absence.  He  finally, 
however,  triumphed  over  all  obstacles,  and  took  his  place  beside 
his  friend.  Mrs.  Marsh  often  saw  them  together,  and  listened, 
at  one  time,  to  a  discussion  or  comparison  of  views  which  revealed 
the  character  and  motives  of  both. 

The  unwounded  one  was  rejoicing  that  his  term  of  service  was 
nearly  expired.  It  was  at  a  time  when  many  were  re-enlisting, 
but  he  emphatically  declared  he  would  not.  "I  would,  then," 
replied  the  wounded  man,  "  if  I  had  the  strength  to  enter  upon 
another  term  of  service,  I  would  do  so.  When  I  did  enlist  it  was 
because  of  my  country's  need,  and  that  need  is  not  less  imminent 
now.  Yes/'  he  added,  with  a  sigh,  "if  God  would  restore  me  to 
health,  I  would  remain  in  the  service  till  the  end  of  the  war. 
The  surgeon  tells  me  I  shall  not  recover,  that  the  next  hemor 
rhage  will  probably  be  the  last.  But  I  am  not  sorry,  I  am  glad, 
that  I  have  done  what  I  have  done,  and  would  do  it  again,  if 
possible." 

That  this  was  the  spirit  of  many  of  the  wounded  men,  Mrs. 
Marsh  delights  to  testify.  This  man  was  God's  soldier,  as  well 
as  the  Union's.  He  had  learned  to  think  amid  the  awful  scenes 
of  Fort  Wagner,  and  when  wounded  at  Olustee  was  prepared  to 
live  or  die,  whichever  was  God's  will.  Mrs.  Marsh  was  sitting 
beside  his  bed,  in  quiet  conversation  with  him,  when  without 
warning,  the  hemorrhage  commenced.  The  plash  of  blood  was 
heard,  as  the  life-current  burst  from  his  wound,  and,  "Go  now," 
lie  said  in  his  low  calm  voice.  "This  is  the  end,  and  I  would 
not  have  you  witness  it," 

The  hemorrhage  was,  however,  checked,  but  he  died  soon  after. 
Meantime  the  Sanitary  Commission  stores  were  constantly  arriving, 


624 

and  Mrs.  Marsh  continued  to  take  the  entire  charge  of  them.  A 
portion  of  her  house  was  used  for  store-rooms,  and  there  were 
received  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  comforts  of  all  kinds  from 
the  North — a  constant,  never-failing  flood  of  beneficence. 

The  first  prisoners  seen  by  Mrs.  Marsh  had  come  from  Charles 
ton.  There  were  nine  privates  and  three  or  four  officers.  Their 
rags  scarcely  covered  them  decently.  They  were  filthy,  squalid, 
emaciated.  They  halted  at  a  point  several  miles  from  Beaufort, 
and  a  requisition  was  sent  by  the  officers  at  this  outpost,  for 
clothing  and  other  necessaries  for  the  officers  of  the  party.  These 
were  sent,  but  Mrs.  Marsh  thought  there  must  be  others — private 
soldiers,  perhaps,  for  whom  no  provision  had  been  made.  She 
accordingly  dispatched  her  nephew,  who  was  a  member  of  her 
family,  to  make  inquiries  and  see  that  the  wants  of  such  were 
provided  for. 

In  a  short  time  she  saw  him  returning  at  the  head  of  his  ragged 
brigade.  The  poor  fellows  were  indeed  a  loathsome  sight,  worn, 
feeble,  clad  only  in  the  unsightly  rags  which  had  been  their  prison 
wear.  They  were  not  shown  into  the  office,  but  to  a  vestibule 
without,  and  their  first  desire  was  for  water,  soap — the  materials 
for  cleanliness.  Mrs.  Marsh  examined  her  stores  for  clothing. 
That  which  was  on  hand  was  mainly  designed  for  hospital  use. 
She  would  have  given  each  an  entire  suit,  but  could  find  only  two 
or  three  pairs  of  coarse  blue  overalls,  such  as  are  worn  by  labor 
ers  at  the  North.  As  she  stepped  to  the  door  to  give  them  this 
clothing,  she  remarked  upon  the  scarcity,  and  said  the  overalls 
must  be  given  to  the  men  that  most  needed  them,  but  at  once 
saw  that  where  all  were  in  filthy  rags,  there  seemed  no  choice. 
The  one  who  stood  nearest  her  had  taken  a  pair  of  the  overalls, 
and  was  surveying  them  with  delight,  but  he  at  once  turned  to 
another,  "I  guess  he  needs  'cm  most,  I  can  get  along  with  the 
old  ones,  a  while,"  he  said,  in  a  cheerful  tone,  and  smothering  a 
little  sigh  he  turned  away. 

This  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  was  almost  universal  among  the  men 


DEPARTMENT    OF    THE    SOUTH. 

of  our  army,  and  was  shown  to  all  who  had  any  care  over  them. 
How  much  every  man  needed  an  entire  change  of  clean/ comfort 
able  garments,  was  shown  the  instant  they  left,  when  the  nephew 
of  Mrs.  Marsh  commenced  sweeping  the  vestibule  where  they 
had  stood,  with  great  vigor,  replying  to  the  remonstrances  of  his 
aunt,  only  "I  must/'  and  adding,  in  a  lower  tone,  "They  can't 
help  it,  poor  fellows/'  as  he  made  the  place  too  hot  to  hold  any 
thing  with  life. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1864,  that  communication  was  first 
obtained  with  the  prisoners  in  Charleston,  a  communication  after 
wards  extended  to  all  the  loathsome  prison-pens  of  the  South, 
where  our  men  languished  in  filth,  disease,  and  starvation. 

At  this  time  Dr.  Marsh's  duties  kept  him  almost  entirely  at 
Folly  Island,  and  there  he  received  a  letter  from  General  Sey 
mour  who  wyas  confined,  with  other  Union  officers,  in  Charleston, 
a  part  of  the  time  under  fire,  asking  that  if  possible  certain  need 
ful  articles  might  be  sent  to  him.  This  letter  was  immediately 
sent  to  Mrs.  Marsh,  who  at  once  prepared  a  box  containing  more 
than  twice  the  amount  of  articles  asked  for,  and  forwarded  them 
to  the  confederate  authorities  at  Charleston,  for  General  Seymour. 
Almost  contrary  to  all  expectations,  this  box  reached  the  General, 
and  but  a  short  time  elapsed  before  its  receipt  was  acknowledged. 
The  General  wrote  touchingly  of  their  privations,  and  while 
thanking  Mrs.  Marsh  warmly  for  the  articles  already  sent,  repre 
sented  the  wants  of  some  of  the  other  gentlemen,  his  companions. 
Supplies  were  sent  them,  received  and  acknowledged,  and  thus  a 
regular  channel  of  communication  was  opened. 

One  noticeable  fact  attended  this  correspondence — namely,  the 
extreme  modesty  of  the  demands  made;  no  one  ever  asking  for 
more  than  he  needed  at  the  time,  as  a  pair  of  stockings,  or  a  single 
shirt,  and  always  expressing  a  fear  lest  others  might  need  these 
favors  more  than  himself. 

When,  soon  after,  by  means  of  this  entering  wedge,  the  way  to 
the  prisons  of  Anderson ville,  Florence,  and  Salisbury,  was 

79 


626 

opened,  the  same  fact  was  observed.  In  the  midst  of  all  their 
dreadful  suffering  and  misery,  the  prisoners  there  made  no  large 
demands.  They  asked  for  but  little — the  smallest  possible 
amount,  and  were  always  fearful  lest  they  might  absorb  the 
bounty  to  which  others  had  a  better  claim. 

After  this  communication  was  opened,  Mrs.  Marsh  found  a 
delightful  task  in  preparing  the  boxes  which  in  great  numbers 
were  constantly  being  sent  forward  to  the  prisons.  It  was  a  part 
of  her  duty,  also,  to  inspect  the  letters  which  went  and  came 
between  the  prisons  and  the  outside  world. 

The  pathos  of  many  of  these  was  far  beyond  description. 
Touching  appeals  constantly  came  to  her  from  distant  Northern 
homes  for  some  tidings  of  the  sons,  brothers,  fathers  of  whose 
captivity  they  had  heard,  but  whose  further  existence  had  been 
a  blank.  Where  are  they?  and  how  are  they?  were  constantly 
recurring  questions,  which  alas !  it  was  far  too  often  her  sad  duty 
to  answer  in  a  way  to  destroy  all  hope. 

And  the  letters  of  the  prisoners,  filled  to  the  uttermost,  not 
with  complaints,  but  with  the  pervading  sadness  that  could  not 
for  one  moment  be  banished  from  their  horrible  lives!  No  words 
can  describe  them,  they  were  simply  heart-breaking!  Just  as 
the  horror  of  the  prison-pens  is  beyond  the  power  of  words  to 
fitly  tell,  so  are  the  griefs  which  grew  out  of  them. 

Mrs.  Marsh  continued  busily  employed  in  this  work  of  mercy 
until  it  was  suddenly  suspended.  Some  formality  had  not  been 
complied  with,  and  the  privilege  of  communication  was  discon 
tinued;  and  all  their  friends  disappointed  and  disheartened. 
This  we  can  easily  imagine,  but  not  what  the  suspension  was  to 
the  suffering  prisoners  who  had  for  a  short  season  enjoyed  this 
one  gleam  of  light  from  the  outer  world,  and  were  now  plunged 
into  a  rayless  hopeless  night.  When  the  time  of  deliverance 
came,  as  we  all  know,  many  of  them  were  past  the  power  of 
rejoicing  in  it. 

Dr.  Marsh  was  for  a  long  time  detained  at  Folly  and  Morris 


DEPARTMENT    OF    THE    SOUTH.  627 

Islands.  The  force  at  Beaufort  was  quite  inadequate,  and  exceed 
ingly  onerous  and  absorbing  duties  fell  to  the  share  of  Mrs. 
Marsh.  Communication  was  difficult.  Dr.  Marsh  at  times  could 
not  reach  his  home.  Vessels  which  had  been  running  between 
New  York  and  Port  Royal  and  Hilton  Head  were  detained 
at  the  North.  The  receipt  and  transmission  of  sanitary  stores, 
and  the  immense  correspondence  growing  out  of  it;  the  general 
oversight  of  the  needs  of  the  hospitals,  and  the  monthly  re 
ports  of  the  same  all  fell  heavily  upon  one  brain  and  one  pair  of 
hands. 

It  was  at  just  such  an  emergency  that  the  army  of  Sherman, 
the  "Great  March"  to  the  sea  nearly  completed,  arrived  upon 
the  scene.  The  sick  and  disabled  arrived  by  hundreds,  the 
hospitals  were  filled  up  directly,  and  even  thronged;  while 
so  numerous  were  the  cases  of  small-pox,  which  had  appeared 
in  the  army,  that  a  large  separate  hospital  had  to  be  pro 
vided  for  them. 

We  may  perhaps  imagine  how  busy  was  the  brave  woman,  left 
with  such  an  immense  responsibility  on  her  hands. 

Early  in  1865,  Dr.  Marsh  received  notice  that  it  had  been 
determined  to  send  him  to  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  but  he 
never  went,  being  attacked  soon  after  by  a  long  and  dangerous 
illness  which  for  a  time  rendered  it  improbable  that  he  would 
ever  see  his  Northern  home  again. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  a  cargo  of  sanitary  supplies  arrived 
from  New  York.  A  part  of  these  were  a  contribution  from 
Montreal.  Montreal  had  before  sent  goods  to  the  Commission, 
but  these  were  forwarded  to  Mrs.  Marsh  herself.  A  letter  of 
hers  written  not  long  previous  to  a  friend  in  New  York,  had 
been  forwarded  to  Montreal,  and  had  aroused  a  strong  desire 
there  to  help  her  in  her  peculiar  work.  A  large  portion  of  this 
gift  was  from  an  M.  P.,  who,  though  he  might,  like  others,  lift  his 
voice  against  the  American  war,  had  yet  enough  of  the  milk  of 


628 

human  kindness  in  his  heart  to  lead  him  to  desire  to  do  some 
thing  for  her  suffering  soldiers  and  prisoners. 

This  gift  Mrs.  Marsh  never  saw,  it  being  sent  with  the  rest  of 
the  unbroken  cargo  back  to  Newbern  in  view  of  the  expected 
arrival  of  her  family  there. 

The  surrender  of  Lee  virtually  closed  the  war,  and  the  neces 
sity  of  Dr.  Marsh's  stay  in  the  South  was  no  longer  an  important 
one.  Besides  this,  his  health  would  not  permit  it,  and  he  returned 
to  New  York  where  he  had  long  been  wanted  to  take  charge  of 
the  "Lincoln  Home"  in  Grove  Street,  a  hospital  opened  by  the 
Sanitary  Commission  for  lingering  cases  of  wounds  and  sickness 
among  homeless  and  destitute  soldiers. 

Of  this  hospital  and  home  Dr.  Marsh  was  surgeon,  and  Mrs. 
Marsh  matron.  Dr.  Hoadly  who  had  been  with  Dr.  Marsh  at 
the  South,  still  retained  the  position  of  assistant.  The  health  of 
Dr.  Marsh  improved,  but  he  has  never  entirely  recovered. 

They  entered  the  Lincoln  Home  on  the  1st  of  May,  1865,  and 
the  house  was  immediately  filled  with  patients.  They  remained 
there  until  June  of  the  following  year,  1866.  During  their  stay 
between  three  and  four  hundred  patients  were  admitted,  and  of 
those  who  were  regular  patients  none  died.  One  soldier,  a 
Swede,  was  found  in  the  street  in  the  last  stages  of  exhaustion 
and  suffering,  and  died  before  the  morning  following  his  admis 
sion.  He  bore  about  him  evidences  of  education  and  gentle 
birth,  but  he  could  not  speak  English,  and  carried  with  him  into 
another  world  the  secret  of  his  name  and  identity.  He  had  no 
disease,  but  the  foundations  of  his  life  had  been  sapped  by  the 
irritation  caused  by  filth  and  vermin. 

As  at  the  South,  in  the  services  of  Mrs.  Marsh  here,  there  was 
a  great  disproportion  between  their  showiness  and  their  useful 
ness.  She  pursued  her  quiet  round  of  labors,  the  results  of  which 
will  be  seen  and  felt  for  years,  as  much  as  in  the  present.  Her 
kind  voice,  and  pleasant  smile  will  be  an  ever  living  and  delight 
ful  memory  in  the  hearts  of  all  to  whom  she  ministered  during 


DEPAETMEXT    OF    THE   SOUTH.  629 

those  long  hours  of  the  nation's  peril,  in  which  the  best  blood  of 
her  sons  was  poured  out  a  red  libation  to  Liberty. 

After  the  close  of  the  Lincoln  Home,  Mrs.  Marsh  continued 
to  devote  herself  to  suffering  soldiers  and  their  families,  making 
herself  notably  useful  in  this  important  department  of  the  na 
tion's  work. 


SAINT    LOUIS    LADIES'    UNION    AID 
SOCIETY. 


HIS  Society,  the  principal  Auxiliary  of  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  holding  the  same  relation  to 
it  that  the  Women's  Central  Association  of  Relief  in 
New  York,  did  to  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com 
mission  had  its  origin  in  the  summer  of  1861.  On  the  26th  of 
July,  of  that  year,  a  few  ladies  met  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  F. 
Holy,  in  St.  Louis,  to  consider  the  propriety  of  combining  the 
efforts  of  the  loyal  ladies  of  that  city  into  a  single  organization 
in  anticipation  of  the  conflict  then  impending  within  the  State. 
At  an  adjourned  meeting  held  a  week  later,  twenty-five  ladies 
registered  themselves,  as  members  of  the  "  Ladies7  Union  Aid  So 
ciety,"  and  elected  a  full  board  of  officers.  Most  of  these  resigned 
in  the  following  autumn,  and  in  November,  1861,  the  following 
list  was  chosen,  most  of  whom  served  through  the  war. 

President :  Mrs.  Alfred  Clapp  ;  Vice  Presidents,  Mrs.  Samuel 
C.  Davis,  Mrs.  T.  M.  Post,  Mrs.  Robert  Anderson ;  Recording 
Secretary,  Miss  H.  A.  Adams ;  Treasurer,  Mrs.  S.  B.  Kellogg ; 
Corresponding  Secretary,  Miss  Belle  Holmes ;  afterwards,  Miss 
Anna  M.  Debenham.  An  Executive  Committee  was  also  ap 
pointed,  several  of  the  members  of  which,  and  among  the  num 
ber,  Mrs.  C.  R.  Springer,  Mrs.  S.  Palmer,  Mrs.  Joseph  Crawshaw, 
Mrs.  Washington  King,  Mrs.  Charles  L.  Ely,  Mrs.  F.  F.  Maltby, 
Mrs.  C.  N.  Barker,  Miss  Susan  J.  Bell,  Miss  Eliza  S.  Glover, 

680 


631 

and  Miss  Eliza  Page,  were  indefatigable  in  their  labors  for  the 
soldiers. 

This  Society  was  from  the  beginning,  active  and  efficient.  It 
conducted  its  business  with  great  ability  and  system,  and  in  every 
direction  made  itself  felt  as  a  power  for  good  throughout  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley.  Its  officers  visited  for  a  considerable  period, 
fourteen  hospitals  in  the  city  and  vicinity,  and  were  known  in  the 
streets  by  the  baskets  they  carried.  Of  one  of  these  baskets  the 
recording  Secretary,  Miss  Adams,  gives  us  an  interesting  inven 
tory  in  one  of  her  reports :  "  Within  was  a  bottle  of  cream,  a 
home-made  loaf,  fresh  eggs,  fruit  and  oysters ;  stowed  away  in  a 
corner  was  a  flannel  shirt,  a  sling,  a  pair  of  spectacles,  a  flask  of 
cologne ;  a  convalescent  had  asked  for  a  lively  book,  and  the 
lively  book  was  in  the  basket ;  there  was  a  dressing-gown  for 
one,  and  a  white  muslin  handkerchief  for  another ;  and  paper, 
envelopes  and  stamps  for  all." 

The  Christian  Commission  made  the  ladies  of  the  Society  their 
agents  for  the  distribution  of  religious  reading,  and  they  scattered 
among  the  men  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  pages  of 
tracts,  and  twenty  thousand  books  and  papers. 

The  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  sent  delegates  to  all  the  earlier 
battle-fields,  as  well  as  to  the  camps  and  trenches  about  Vicks- 
burg,  and  these  ladies  returned  upon  the  hospital  steamers,  pur 
suing  their  heroic  work,  toiling  early  and  late,  imperilling  in 
many  cases  their  health,  and  even  their  lives,  in  the  midst  of  the 
trying  and  terrible  scenes  which  surrounded  them.  During  the 
fall  and  winter  of  1862—3,  the  Society's  rooms  were  open  day  and 
evening,  for  the  purpose  of  bandage-rolling,  so  great  was  the  de 
mand  for  supplies  of  this  kind. 

Amid  their  other  labors,  they  were  not  unmindful  of  the  dis 
tress  which  the  families  of  the  soldiers  were  suffering.  So  great 
was  the  demand  for  hospital  clothing,  that  they  could  not  supply 
it  alone,  and  they  expended  five  thousand  five  hundred  dollars 
received  for  the  purpose  from  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission, 


632  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

in  paying  for  the  labor  on  seventy-five  thousand  garments  for  the 
hospitals.  The  Medical  Purveyor,  learning  of  their  success, 
offered  the  Aid  Society  a  large  contract  for  army  work.  They 
accepted  it,  and  prepared  the  work  at  their  rooms,  and  gave  out 
one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand  articles  to  be  made,  pay- 
ins  out  over  six  thousand  dollars  for  labor.  Several  other  con- 

o> 

tracts  followed,  particularly  one  for  two  hundred  and  sixty-one 
thousand  yards  of  bandages,  for  the  rolling  of  which  six  hundred 
and  fifty-two  dollars  were  paid.  By  these  means  and  a  judicious 
liberality,  the  Society  prevented  a  great  amount  of  suffering  in 
the  families  of  soldiers.  The  Benton  Barracks  Hospital,  one  of 
the  largest  in  the  West,  to  which  reference  has  been  frequently 
made  in  this  volume,  had  for  its  surgeon-in-charge,  that  able  sur 
geon  and  earnest  philanthropist,  Dr.  Ira  Russell.  Ever  anxious  to 
do  all  in  his  power  for  his  patients,  and  satisfied  that  more  skilfully 
prepared  special  diet,  and  in  greater  variety  than  the  government 
supplies  permitted  would  be  beneficial  to  them,  he  requested  the 
ladies  of  the  UnionAid  Society,  to  occupy  a  reception-room,  store 
room,  and  kitchen  at  the  hospital,  in  supplying  this  necessity. 
Donations  intended  for  the  soldiers  could  be  left  at  these  rooms 
for  distribution  ;  fruit,  vegetables,  and  other  offerings  could  here 
be  prepared  and  issued  as  required.  Thus  all  outside  bounty 
could  be  systematized,  and  the  surgeon  could  regulate  the  diet  of 
the  entire  hospital.  Miss  Bettie  Broadhead,  was  the  first  super 
intendent  of  these  rooms  which  were  subsequently  enlarged  and 
multiplied.  Bills  of  fare  were  distributed  in  each  ward  every 
morning ;  the  soldiers  wrote  their  names  and  numbers  opposite 
the  special  dishes  they  desired ;  the  surgeon  examined  the  bills 
of  fare,  and  if  he  approved,  endorsed  them.  At  the  appointed 
time  the  dishes  distinctly  labelled,  arrived  at  their  destination  in 
charge  of  an  orderly.  Nearly  forty-eight  thousand  dishes  were 
issued  in  one  year. 

In  the  fall  of  1863,  the  Society  established  a  branch  at  Nash 
ville,   Tennessee,   Mrs.   Barker  and  Miss  H.  A.  Adams,  going 


SAINT  LOUIS  LADIES'  UNION  AID  SOCIETY.  633 

thither  with  five  hundred  dollars  and  seventy-two  boxes  of  stores. 
Miss  Adams,  though  surrounded  with  difficulties,  and  finding  the 
surgeons  indifferent  if  not  hostile,  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
special  diet  kitchen,  like  that  at  Benton  Barracks7  Hospital.  This 
subsequently  became  a  very  important  institution,  sixty-two  thou 
sand  dishes  being  issued  in  the  single  month  of  August,  1864. 
The  supplies  for  this  kitchen,  were  mostly  furnished  by  the  Pitts- 
burg  Subsistence  Committee,  and  Miss  Ellen  Murdoch,  the 
daughter  of  the  elocutionist  to  whom  we  have  already  referred, 
in  the  account  of  the  Pittsburg  Branch,  prepared  the  supplies 
with  her  own  hands,  for  three  months.  During  this  period,  no 
reasonable  wish  of  an  invalid  ever  went  ungratified. 

This  Society  also  did  a  considerable  work  for  the  freedmen — 
and  the  white  refugees,  in  connection  with  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission.  On  the  formation  of  the  Freedmen's  Relief  So 
ciety,  this  part  of  their  work  was  transferred  to  them. 

We  have  no  means  of  giving  definitely  the  aggregate  receipts 
and  disbursements  of  this  efficient  Association.  They  were  so 
involved  with  those  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  that  it 
would  be  a  difficult  task  to  separate  them.  The  receipts  of  the 
Commission  were  seven  hundred  and  seventy-one  thousand  dol 
lars  in  money,  and  about  three  millions  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  supplies.  Of  this  sum  we  believe  we  are  not  in  the 
wrong  in  attributing  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  dollar's  in  cash, 
and  one  million  dollars  in  supplies  to  the  Ladies7  Union  Aid 
Society,  either  directly  or  indirectly. 

Believing  that  the  exertions  of  the  efficient  officers  of  the  So 
ciety  deserve  commemoration,  we  have  obtained  the  following 
brief  sketches  of  Mrs.  Clapp,  Miss  Adams,  (now  Mrs.  Collins), 
Mrs.  Springer,  and  Mrs.  Palmer. 

Among  the  earnest  and  noble  women  of  St.  Louis,  who  devoted 
themselves  to  the  cause  of  their  country  and  its  heroic  defend 
ers  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  Rebellion,  and  Avhose  labors 
and  sacrifices  were  maintained  throughout  the  struggle  for  na- 

80 


634  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

tional  unity  and  liberty,  none  are  more  worthy  of  honorable  men 
tion,  in  a  work  of  this  character,  than  MRS.  ANNA  L.  CLAPP. 

She  was  distinguished  among  those  ladies  whose  labors  for  the 
Charities  of  the  war,  and  whose  presence  in  the  Hospitals,  cheered 
and  comforted  the  soldiers  of  the  Union,  and  either  prepared 
them  for  a  tranquil  and  happy  deliverance  from  their  sufferings, 
or  sent  them  back  to  the  field  of  battle  to  continue  the  heroic 
contest  until  success  should  crown  the  victorious  arms  of  the  na 
tion,  and  give  peace  and  liberty  to  their  beloved  country. 

The  maiden  name  of  Mrs.  Clapp  was  Wendell,  and  her  pater 
nal  ancestors  originally  emigrated  from  Holland.  She  was  born 
in  Cambridge,  Washington  county,  New  York,  and  was  educated 
at  Albany. 

For  three  years  she  was  a  teacher  in  the  celebrated  school  of 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Prime,  at  Newburgh,  New  York.  In  the  year 
1838,  she  was  married  to  Alfred  Clapp,  Esq.,  an  enterprising 
merchant,  and  lived  for  several  years  in  New  York  City,  and 
Brooklyn,  where  she  became  an  active  member  of  various  bene 
volent  associations,  and  performed  the  duties  of  Treasurer  of  the 
Industrial  School  Association. 

Just  previous  to  the  Rebellion,  she  emigrated  with  her  husband 
and  family  to  St.  Louis,  and  after  the  war  had  commenced,  and 
the  early  battles  in  the  West  had  begun  to  fill  every  vacant  pub 
lic  building  in  that  city  with  sick  and  wounded  men,  she,  with 
many  other  noble  women  of  like  heroic  temperament,  found  a 
new  sphere  for  their  activity  and  usefulness.  In  the  month  of 
August,  1861,  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  of  St.  Louis,  was 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  ministering  to  the  wants  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  soldiers,  providing  Hospital  garments  and  Sanitary 
stores,  in  connection  with  similar  labors  by  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission,  assisting  soldiers'  families,  and  visiting  the  Hospi 
tals,  to  give  religious  counsel,  and  minister  consolation  to  the  sick 
and  dying,  in  a  city  where  only  a  few  of  the  clergy  of  the  various 
denominations  who  were  distinguished  for  their  patriotism  and 


SAINT  LOUIS  LADIES'  UNION  AID  SOCIETY.  635 

loyalty,  attended  to  this  duty ;  the  majority,  both  Protestant  and 
Catholic,  being  either  indifferent  to  the  consequences  of  the  re 
bellion,  or  in  sympathy  with  the  treason  which  was  at  that  time 
threatening  the  Union  and  liberties  of  the  country  with  disrup 
tion  and  overthrow. 

Of  this  Association  of  noble  and  philanthropic  women,  which 
continued  its  useful  labors  during  the  war,  Mrs.  Clapp  was  made 
President  in  the  fall  of  1861,  holding  that  office  during  the  ex 
istence  of  the  organization,  giving  nearly  all  her  time  and  ener 
gies  to  this  great  work  of  helping  and  comforting  her  country's 
defenders. 

After  the  great  battles  of  Shiloh  and  Yicksburg,  and  Arkansas 
Post,  she,  with  other  ladies  of  the  Association,  repaired  on  Hos 
pital  Steamers  to  the  scene  of  conflict,  taking  boxes  of  Sanitary 
stores,  Hospital  garments  and  lint  for  the  wounded,  and  minis 
tered  to  them  with  her  own  hands  011  the  return  trips  to  the  Hos 
pitals  of  St.  Louis. 

As  President  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  her  labors  were 
arduous  and  unremitting.  The  work  of  this  association  was 
always  very  great,  consisting  in  part  of  the  manufacture  of  hos 
pital  garments,  by  contract  with  the  medical  purveyor,  which 
work  was  given  out  to  the  wives  of  soldiers,  to  enable  them  the 
better  to  support  themselves  and  children,  during  the  absence  of 
their  husbands  in  the  army.  The  work  of  cutting  out  these  gar 
ments,  giving  them  out,  keeping  an  account  with  each  soldier's 
wife,  paying  the  price  of  the  labor,  etc.,  was  no  small  undertak 
ing,  requiring  much  labor  from  the  members  of  the  society.  It 
was  an  interesting  sight,  on  Thursday  of  each  week,  to  see  hun 
dreds  of  poor  women  filling  the  large  rooms  of  the  association  on 
Chestnut  Street,  from  morning  to  night,  receiving  work  and  pay, 
and  to  witness  the  untiring  industry  of  the  President,  Secretary, 
Treasurer,  and  Committees,  waiting  upon  them. 

The  visitation  of  these  families  by  committees,  and  their  reports, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  general  sanitary  and  hospital  work  per- 


636  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

formed  by  the  society,  required  a  large  amount  of  labor;  and  in 
addition  to  this  the  aid  rendered  to  destitute  families  of  Union 
refugees,  and  the  part  taken  by  Mrs.  Clapp  in  organizing  a 
Refugee  Plome,  and  House  of  Industry,  would  each  of  itself 
make  quite  a  chapter  of  the  history  of  the  association. 

In  all  these  labors  Mrs.  Clapp  showed  great  executive  and 
administrative  ability,  and  must  be  reckoned  by  all  who  know 
her,  among  the  truly  patriotic  women  of  the  land.  And  in  all 
the  relations  of  life  her  character  stands  equally  high,  adorning, 
as  she  does,  her  Christian  profession  by  works  of  piety,  and 
patriotism,  and  love,  and  commanding  the  highest  confidence  and 
admiration  of  the  community  in  which  she  lives. 

The  devoted  labors  of  Miss  H.  A.  ADAMS,  in  the  service  of 
the  soldiers  of  the  Union  and  their  families,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  till  near  its  close,  entitle  her  to  a  place  in  the  records 
of  this  volume.  She  was  born  in  Fitz  William,  New  Hamp 
shire,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Monadnock,  and  grew  to  maturity 
amid  the  beautiful  scenery,  and  the  pure  influences  of  her  New 
England  home.  Her  father,  Mr.  J.  S.  Adams,  was  a  surveyor,  a 
man  of  character  and  influence,  and  gave  to  his  daughter  an 
excellent  education.  At  fifteen  years  of  age  she  became  a  teacher, 
and  in  1856  came  West  for  the  benefit  of  her  health,  having  a 
predisposition  to  pulmonary  consumption,  and  fearing  the  effect 
of  the  east  winds  and  the  trying  climate  of  the  Eastern  States. 

Having  connections  in  St.  Louis  she  came  to  that  city,  and,  for  a 
year  and  a  half,  was  employed  as  a  teacher  in  the  public  schools. 
In  this,  her  chosen  profession,  she  soon  acquired  an  honorable 
position,  which  she  retained  till  the  commencement  of  the  war. 
At  this  time,  however,  the  management  of  the  schools  was  di 
rected  by  a  Board  of  Education,  the  members  of  which  were 
mostly  secessionists,  the  school  fund  was  diverted  from  its  proper 
uses  by  the  disloyal  State  government,  under  Claib.  Jackson,  and 
all  the  teachers,  who  were  from  New  England,  were  dismissed 
from  their  situations,  at  the  close  of  the  term  in  1861.  Miss 


SAINT   LOUIS    LADIES'  UNION   AID   SOCIETY.  637 

Adams,  of  course,  was  included  in  this  number,  and  the  unjust 
proscription  only  excited  more  intensely  the  love  of  her  country 
and  its  noble  defenders,  who  were  already  rallying  to  the  standard 
of  the  Union,  and  laying  down  their  lives  on  the  altars  of  justice 
and  liberty. 

In  August,  1861,  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  of  St.  Louis, 
was  organized.  Miss  Adams  was  present  at  its  first  meeting  and 
assisted  in  its  formation.  She  wTas  chosen  as  its  first  secretary, 
which  office  she  filled  with  untiring  industry,  and  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  all  its  members,  for  more  than  three  years. 

In  the  autumn  of  1863,  her  only  brother  died  in  the  military 
service  of  the  United  States.  AYith  true  womanly  heroism,  she 
went  to  the  hospital  at  Mound  City,  Illinois,  where  he  had  been 
under  surgical  treatment,  hoping  to  nurse  and  care  for  him,  and 
see  him  restored  to  health,  but  before  she  reached  the  place  he  had 
died  and  was  buried.  From  this  time  her  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  our  brave  troops  was  increased  and  intensified,  and  there  was 
no  sacrifice  she  was  not  willing  to  undertake  for  their  benefit. 
Moved  by  the  grief  of  her  own  personal  bereavement,  her  sym 
pathy  for  the  sick  and  wounded  of  the  army  of  the  Union,  was 
manifested  by  renewed  diligence  in  the  work  of  sending  them  all 
possible  aid  and  comfort  from  the  ample  stores  of  the  Ladies' 
Union  Aid  Society,  and  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  and 
by  labors  for  the  hospitals  far  and  near. 

The  duties  of  Miss  Adams,  as  Secretary  of  the  Ladies'  Union 
Aid  Society,  were  very  arduous. 

The  Society  comprised  several  hundred  of  the  most  noble,  effi 
cient  and  patriotic  women  of  St.  Louis.  The  rooms  were  open 
every  day,  from  morning  to  night.  Sanitary  stores  and  Hospital 
garments  were  prepared  and  manufactured  by  the  members,  and 
received  by  donation  from  citizens  and  from  abroad,  and  had  to 
be  stored  and  arranged,  and  given  out  again  to  the  Hospitals, 
and  to  the  sick  in  regimental  camps,  in  and  around  St.  Louis, 
and  also  other  points  in  Missouri,  as  they  were  needed.  Letters 


638 

of  acknowledgement  had  to  be  written,  applications  answered,  ac 
counts  kept,  proceedings  recorded,  information  and  advice  given, 
reports  written  and  published,  all  of  which  devolved  upon  the 
faithful  and  devoted  Secretary,  who  was  ever  at  her  post,  and  con 
stant  and  unremitting  in  her  labors.  Soldiers'  families  had  also 
to  be  assisted ;  widows  and  orphans  to  be  visited  and  cared  for ; 
rents,  fuel,  clothing,  and  employment  to  be  provided,  and  the 
destitute  relieved,  of  whom  there  were  thousands  whose  husbands, 
and  sons,  and  brothers,  were  absent  fighting  the  battles  of  the 
Union. 

Missouri  was,  during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  a  battle-ground. 
St.  Louis  and  its  environs  were  crowded  with  troops ;  the  Hos 
pitals  were  large  and  numerous;  during  the  winter  of  1861—2, 
there  were  twenty  thousand  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  them; 
and  the  concurrent  labors  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society,  and 
the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  were  in  constant  requisition. 
The  visiting  of  the  sick,  ministering  to  them  at  their  couches  of 
pain,  reading  to  them,  cheerful  conversation  with  them,  were  du 
ties  which  engaged  many  of  the  ladies  of  the  Society ;  and  numer 
ous  interesting  and  affecting  incidents  were  preserved  by  Miss 
Adams,  and  embodied  in  the  Reports  of  the  Association.  She 
also  did  her  share  in  this  work  of  visiting;  and  during  the  win 
ter  of  1863-4,  she  went  to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  established 
there  a  special  diet  kitchen,  upon  which  the  surgeons  in  charge 
of  the  hospitals,  could  make  requisitions  for  the  nicer  and  more 
delicate  preparations  of  food  for  the  very  sick.  She  remained  all 
winter  in  Nashville,  in  charge  of  a  branch  of  the  St.  Louis  Aid 
Society,  and,  by  her  influence,  secured  the  opening  of  the  hospi 
tals  to  female  nurses,  who  had  hitherto  not  been  employed  in 
Nashville.  Knowing,  as  she  did,  the  superior  gentleness  of  wo 
men  as  nurses,  their  more  abundant  kindness  and  sympathy,  and 
their  greater  skill  in  the  preparation  of  food  for  the  sick ;  know 
ing  also  the  success  that  had  attended  the  experiment  of  intro 
ducing  women  nurses  in  the  Military  Hospitals  in  other  cities, 


639 

she  determined  to  overcome  the  prejudices  of  such  of  the  army 
surgeons  as  stood  in  the  way,  and  secure  to  her  sick  and  wounded 
brothers  in  the  hospitals  at  Nashville,  the  benefit  of  womanly 
kindness,  and  nursing,  and  care.  In  this  endeavor  she  was  en 
tirely  successful,  and  by  her  persuasive  manners,  her  womanly 
grace  and  refinement,  and  her  good  sense,  she  recommended  her 
views  to  the  medical  authorities,  and  accomplished  her  wishes. 

Returning  to  St.  Louis  in  the  spring  of  1864,  she  continued  to 
perform  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  So 
ciety,  till  the  end  of  the  year,  when,  in  consequence  of  a  con 
templated  change  in  her  life,  she  resigned  her  position,  and  retired 
from  it  with  the  friendship  and  warm  appreciation  of  her  co- 
workers  in  the  useful  labors  of  the  society.  In  the  month  of 
June,  1865,  she  was  married  to  Morris  Collins,  Esq.,  a  citizen  of 
St.  Louis. 

MRS.  C.  R.  SPRINGER,  who  has  labored  so  indefatigably  at  St. 
Louis,  for  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  and  their  families  during  the 
war,  was  born  in  Parsonsfield,  Maine.  Her  maiden  name  was 
Lord.  Previous  to  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Springer,  a  respectable 
merchant  of  St.  Louis,  she  was  a  teacher  in  New  Hampshire. 
On  the  event  of  her  marriage,  she  came  to  reside  at  St.  Louis, 
about  ten  years  ago,  and  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  espoused 
with  patriotic  ardor  the  cause  of  her  country  in  its  struggle  with 
the  great  slaveholding  rebellion.  To  do  this  in  St.  Louis,  at  that 
period,  when  wealth  and  fashion,  and  church  influence  were  so 
largely  on  the  side  of  the  rebellion,  and  every  social  circle  was 
more  or  less  infected  with  treason,  required  a  high  degree  of  moral 
courage  and  heroism. 

From  the  first  opening  of  the  hospitals  in  St.  Louis,  in  the  au 
tumn  of  1861,  Mrs.  Springer  became  a  most  untiring,  devoted 
and  judicious  visiter,  and  by  her  kind  and  gracious  manners,  her 
words  of  sympathy  and  encouragement,  and  her  religious  conso 
lation,  she  imparted  hope  and  comfort  to  many  a  poor,  sick,  and 
wounded  soldier,  stretched  upon  the  bed  of  languishing. 


640 

Besides  her  useful  tabors  in  the  hospitals,  Mrs.  Springer  was 
an  active  member  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society  in  St. 
Louis,  from  the  date  of  its  organization  in  August,  1861,  to  its 
final  disbanding — October,  1865 — in  the  deliberations  of  which 
her  counsel  always  had  great  weight  and  influence.  During  the 
four  years  of  its  varied  and  useful  labors  for  the  soldiers  and  their 
families,  she  has  been  among  its  most  diligent  workers.  In  the 
winter  of  1862,  the  Society  took  charge  of  the  labor  of  making 
up  hospital  garments,  given  out  by  the  Medical  Purveyor  of  the 
department,  and  she  superintended  the  whole  of  this  important 
work  during  that  winter,  in  which  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
thousand  five  hundred  garments  were  made. 

Mrs.  Springer  is  a  highly  educated  woman,  of  great  moral 
worth,  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  the  soldier,  inspired  by  sincere 
love  of  country,  and  a  high  sense  of  Christian  duty.  No  one 
will  be  more  gratefully  remembered  by  thousands  of  soldiers  and 
their  families,  to  whom  she  has  manifested  kindness,  and  a  warm 
interest  in  their  welfare.  These  services  have  been  gratuitously 
rendered,  and  she  has  given  up  customary  recreations,  and  sac 
rificed  ease  and  social  pleasure  to  attend  to  these  duties  of  hu 
manity.  Her  reward  will  be  found  in  the  consciousness  of  having 
done  good  to  the  defenders  of  her  native  land,  and  in  the  bless 
ing  of  those  who  were  ready  to  perish,  to  whom  her  kind  ser 
vices,  and  words  of  good  cheer  came  as  a  healing  balm  in  the 
hour  of  despondency,  and  strengthened  them  for  a  renewal  of 
their  efforts  in  the  cause  of  country  and  liberty. 

Among  the  devoted  women  who  have  made  themselves  mar 
tyrs  to  the  work  of  helping  our  patriotic  soldiers  and  their  fami 
lies  in  St.  Louis,  was  the  late  MES.  MARY  E.  PALMER.  She 
was  born  in  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  June  28th,  1827,  and 
her  maiden  name  was  Locker.  She  was  married  in  February, 
1847,  to  Mr.  Samuel  Palmer.  In  1855  she  removed  to  Kansas, 
and  in  1857  returned  as  far  eastward  as  St.  Louis,  where  she 
resided  until  her  death. 


SAINT  LOUIS  LADIES'  uxiox  AID  SOCIETY.  641 

In  the  beginning  of  the  war,  when  battles  began  to  be  fought, 
and  the  sick  and  wounded  were  brought  to  our  hospitals  to  be 
treated  and  cared  for,  Mrs.  Palmer  with  true  patriotic  devo 
tion  and  womanly  sympathy  offered  her  services  to  this  good 
cause,  and  after  a  variety  of  hospital  work  in  the  fall  of  1863, 
she  entered  into  the  service  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society  of 
St.  Louis  as  a  regular  visiter  among  the  soldiers'  families,  many 
of  whom  needed  aid  and  work,  during  the  absence  of  their  natural 
protectors  in  the  army.  It  was  a  field  of  great  labor  and  useful 
ness;  for  in  so  large  a  city  there  were  thousands  of  poor  women, 
whose  husbands  often  went  months  without  pay,  or  the  means  of 
sending  it  home  to  their  families,  who  were  obliged  to  appeal  for 
assistance  in  taking  care  of  themselves  and  children.  To  prevent 
imposition  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  visited,  the  requi 
site  aid  rendered,  and  sewing  or  other  work  provided  by  which 
they  could  earn  a  part  of  their  own  support,  a  proper  discrimina 
tion  being  made  between  the  worthy  and  unworthy,  the  really 
suffering,  and  those  who  would  impose  on  the  charity  of  the 
society  under  the  plea  of  necessity. 

In  this  work  Mrs.  Palmer  was  most  faithful  and  constant, 
going  from  day  to  day  through  a  period  of  nearly  two  years,  in 
summer  and  winter,  in  sunshine  and  storm,  to  the  abodes  of  these 
people,  to  find  out  their  real  necessities,  to  report  to  the  society 
and  to  secure  for  them  the  needed  relief. 

Her  labors  also  extended  to  many  destitute  families  of  refugees, 
who  had  found  their  way  to  St.  Louis  from  the  impoverished 
regions  of  Southern  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and  who  would  have  died  of  actual  want, 
but  for  the  charity  of  the  Government  and  the  ministering  aid 
of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  and  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid 
Society.  In  her  visits  and  her  dispensations  of  charity  Mrs. 
Palmer  was  always  wise,  judicious,  and  humane,  and  enjoyed  the 
fullest  confidence  of  the  society  in  whose  service  she  was  engaged. 
In  the  performance  of  her  duties  she  was  always  thoroughly  con- 
si 


642 

scientious,  and  actuated  by  a  high  sense  of  religious  duty.  From 
an  early  period  of  her  life  she  had  been  a  consistent  member  of  the 
Baptist  Church,  and  her  Christian  character  was  adorned  by  a 
thorough  consecration  to  works  of  kindness  and  humanity  which 
were  performed  in  the  spirit  of  Him,  who,  during  his  earthly 
ministry,  "went  about  doing  good." 

By  her  arduous  labors,  which  were  greater  than  her  physical 
constitution  could  permanently  endure,  Mrs.  Palmer's  health 
became  undermined,  and  in  the  summer  of  1865  she  passed  into 
a  fatal  decline,  and  on  the  2d  of  August  ended  a  life  of  usefulness 
on  earth  to  enter  upon  the  enjoyments  of  a  beatified  spirit  in 
heaven. 


LADIES'   AID    SOCIETY    OF    PHILA 
DELPHIA. 


NE  of  the  first  societies  formed  by  ladies  to  aid  and  care 
for  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers,,  was  the  one  whose 
name  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  this  sketch.  The 
Aid  Society  of  Cleveland,  and  we  believe  one  in  Bos 
ton  claim  a  date  five  or  six  days  earlier,  but  no  others.  The 
ladies  who  composed  it  met  on  the  26th  of  April,  1861,  and 
organized  themselves  as  a  society  to  labor  for  the  welfare  of  the 
soldiers  whether  in  sickness  or  health.  They  continued  their 
labors  with  unabated  zeal  until  the  close  of  the  war  rendered 
them  unnecessary.  The  officers  of  the  society  were  Mrs.  Joel 
Jones,  President;  Mrs.  John  Harris,  Secretary;  and  Mrs.  Ste 
phen  Colwell,  Treasurer.  Mrs.  Jones  is  the  widow  of  the  late 
Hon.  Joel  Jones,  a  distinguished  jurist  of  Philadelphia,  and  sub 
sequently  for  several  years  President  of  Girard  College.  A  quiet, 
self-possessed  and  dignified  lady,  she  yet  possessed  an  earnestly 
patriotic  spirit,  and  decided  business  abilities.  Of  Mrs.  Harris, 
one  of  the  most  faithful  and  persevering  laborers  for  the  soldiers 
in  the  field,  throughout  the  war,  we  have  spoken  at  length  else 
where  in  this  volume.  Mrs.  Colwell,  the  wife  of  Hon.  Stephen 
Colwell,  a  man  of  rare  philosophic  mind  and  comprehensive 
views,  who  had  acquired  a  reputation  alike  by  his  writings,  and 
his  earnest  practical  benevolence,  was  a  woman  every  way  worthy 
of  her  husband. 

It  was  early  determined  to  allow  Mrs.  Harris  to  follow  the 

643 


644 

promptings  of  her  benevolent  heart  and  go  to  the  field,  while  her 
colleagues  should  attend  to  the  work  of  raising  supplies  and 
money  at  home,  and  furnishing  her  with  the  stores  she  required 
for  her  own  distribution  and  that  of  the  zealous  workers  who 
were  associated  with  her.  The  members  of  the  society  were  con 
nected  with  twenty  different  churches  of  several  denominations, 
and  while  all  had  reference  to  the  spiritual  as  well  as  physical 
welfare  of  the  soldier,  yet  there  was  nothing  sectarian  or  denomi 
national  in  its  work.  From  the  fact  that  its  meetings  were  held 
and  its  goods  packed  in  the  basement  and  vestry  of  Dr.  Board- 
man's  Church,,  it  was  sometimes  called  the  Presbyterian  Ladies' 
Aid  Society,  but  the  name,  if  intended  to  imply  that  its  character 
was  denominational,  was  unjust.  As  early  as  October,  1861,  the 
pastors  of  twelve  churches  in  Philadelphia  united  in  an  appeal  to 
all  into  whose  hands  the  circular  might  fall,  to  contribute  to  this 
society  and  to  form  auxiliaries  to  it,  on  the  ground  of  its  effi 
ciency,  its  economical  management,  and  its  unsectarian  character. 
The  society,  with  but  moderate  receipts  as  compared  with  those 
of  the  great  organizations,  accomplished  a  great  amount  of  good. 
Not  a  few  of  the  most  earnest  and  noble  workers  in  the  field  were 
at  one  time  or  another  the  distributors  of  its  supplies,  and  thus  in 
some  sense,  its  agents.  Among  these  we  may  name  besides  Mrs. 
Harris,  Mrs.  M.  M.  Husband,  Mrs.  Mary  W.  Lee,  Miss  M.  M. 
C.  Hall,  Miss  Cornelia  Hancock,  Miss  Anna  M.  Ross,  Miss 
Nellie  Chase,  of  Nashville,  Miss  Hetty  K.  Painter,  Mrs.  Z. 
Den  ham,  Miss  Pinkham,  Miss  Biddle,  Mrs.  Sampson,  Mrs. 
Waterman,  and  others.  The  work  intended  by  the  society,  and 
which  its  agents  attempted  to  perform  was  a  religious  as  well  as 
a  physical  one;  hospital  supplies  were  to  be  dispensed,  and  the 
sick  and  dying  soldier  carefully  nursed;  but  it  was  also  a  part  of 
its  duty  to  point  the  sinner  to  Christ,  to  warn  and  reprove  the 
erring,  and  to  bring  religious  consolation  and  support  to  the  sick 
and  dying;  the  Bible,  the  Testament,  and  the  tract  were  as  truly 
a  part  of  its  supplies  as  the  clothing  it  distributed  so  liberally,  or 


LADIES'  AID  SOCIETY  OF  PHILADELPHIA.  645 

the  delicacies  it  provided  to  tempt  the  appetite  of  the  sick.  Mrs. 
Harris  established  prayer-meetings  wherever  it  was  possible  in 
the  camps  or  at  the  field  hospitals,  and  several  of  the  other  ladies 
followed  her  example. 

In  her  first  report,  Mrs.  Harris  said: — "In  addition  to  the 
dispensing  of  hospital  supplies,  the  sick  of  two  hundred  and  three 
regiments  have  been  personally  visited.  Hundreds  of  letters, 
bearing  last  messages  of  love  to  dear  ones  at  home,  have  been 
written  for  sick  and  dying  soldiers.  We  have  thrown  something 
of  home  light  and  love  around  the  rude  couches  of  at  least  five 
hundred  of  our  noble  citizen  soldiers,  who  sleep  their  last  sleep 
along  the  Potomac. 

"We  have  been  permitted  to  take  the  place  of  mothers  and 
sisters,  wiping  the  chill  dew  of  death  from  the  noble  brow,  and 
breathing  words  of  Jesus  into  the  ear  upon  which  all  other  sounds 
fell  unheeded.  The  gentle  pressure  of  the  hand  has  carried  the 
dying  one  to  the  old  homestead,  and,  as  it  often  happened,  by  a 
merciful  illusion,  the  dying  soldier  has  thought  the  face  upon 
which  his  last  look  rested,  was  that  of  a  precious  mother,  sister, 
or  other  cherished  one.  One,  a  German,  in  broken  accents,  whis 
pered  :  '  How  good  you  have  come,  Eliza ;  Jesus  is  always  near 
me;'  then,  wrestling  with  that  mysterious  power,  death,  slept  in 
Jesus.  Again,  a  gentle  lad  of  seventeen  summers,  wistfully  then 
joyfully  exclaimed:  'I  knew  she  would  come  to  her  boy/  went 
down  comforted  into  the  dark  valley.  Others,  many  others  still, 
have  thrown  a  lifetime  of  trustful  love  into  the  last  look,  sighing 
out  life  with  ' Mother,  dear  mother!' 

"  It  has  been  our  highest  aim,  whilst  ministering  to  the  tem 
poral  well-being  of  our  loved  and  valued  soldiers,  to  turn  their 
thoughts  and  affections  heavenward.  We  are  permitted  to  hope 
that  not  a  few  have,  through  the  blessed  influence  of  religious 
tracts,  soldiers'  pocket  books,  soldiers'  Bibles,  and,  above  all,  the 
Holy  Scriptures  distributed  by  us,  been  led  'to  cast  anchor  upon 


646 

that  which  is  within  the  veil,  whither  the  forerunner  is  for  us 
entered,  even  Jesus/  r' 

The  society  did  not  attempt,  and  wisely,  to  compete  with  the 
great  commissions  in  their  work.  It  could  not  supply  an  entire 
army  or  throw  upon  the  shoulders  of  its  hard-working  voluntary 
agents  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of  a  great  battle.  Its 
field  of  operations  was  rather  here  and  there  a  field  hospital,  the 
care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of  a  single  division,  or  at  most  of  a 
small  army  corps,  when  not  engaged  in  any  great  battles;  the 
providing  for  some  hundreds  of  refugees,  the  care  of  some  of  the 
freedmen,  and  the  assistance  of  the  families  of  the  soldiers. 
Whatever  it  undertook  to  do  it  did  well.  Its  semi-annual  reports 
consisted  largely  of  letters  from  its  absent  secretary,  letters  full 
of  pathos  and  simple  eloquence,  and  these  widely  circulated,  pro 
duced  a  deep  impression,  and  stirred  the  sympathies  of  those  who 
read,  to  more  abundant  contributions. 

As  an  instance  of  the  spirit  which  actuated  the  members  of  this 
society  we  state  the  following  incident  of  which  we  were  person 
ally  cognizant;  one  of  the  officers  of  the  society  soon  after  the 
commencement  of  the  war  had  contributed  so  largely  to  its  funds 
that  she  felt  that  only  by  some  self-denial  could  she  give  more. 
Considering  for  a  time  where  the  retrenchment  should  begin,  she 
said  to  the  members  of  her  family ;  "  these  soldiers  who  have  gone 
to  fight  our  battles  have  been  willing  to  hazard  their  lives  for  us, 
and  we  certainly  cannot  do  too  much  for  them.  Now,  I  propose, 
if  you  all  consent,  to  devote  a  daily  sum  to  the  relief  of  the  army 
while  the  war  lasts,  and  that  we  all  go  without  some  accustomed 
luxury  to  procure  that  sum.  Suppose  we  dispense  with  our  des 
sert  during  the  war?"  Her  family  consented,  and  the  cost  of  the 
dessert  was  duly  paid  over  to  the  society  as  an  additional  dona 
tion  throughout  the  war. 

The  society  received  and  expended  during  the  four  years  end 
ing  April  30,  1865,  twenty-four  thousand  dollars  in  money, 
beside  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  soldiers7  families,  and 


647 

seven  hundred  dollars  with  accumulated  interest  for  aiding  dis 
abled  soldiers  to  reach  their  homes.  The  supplies  distributed 
were  worth  not  far  from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  aside  from  those  sent  directly  to  Mrs.  Harris  from  indi 
viduals  and  societies,  which  were  estimated  at  fully  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  say  something  of  two  other 
associations  of  ladies  in  Philadelphia  for  aiding  the  soldiers, 
which  remained  independent  of  the  Sanitary  or  Christian  Com 
missions  through  the  war,  and  which  accomplished  much  good. 

THE  PENN  RELIEF  ASSOCIATION  was  organized  early  in  1862, 
first  by  the  Hicksite  Friends,  to  demonstrate  the  falsity  of  the 
commonly  received  report  that  the  "  Friends,"  being  opposed  to 
war,  would  not  do  anything  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  Many 
of  the  "Orthodox  Friends"  afterwards  joined  it,  as  well  as  con 
siderable  numbers  from  other  denominations,  and  it  proved  itself 
a  very  efficient  body.  Mrs.  Rachel  S.  Evans  was  its  President, 
and  Miss  Anna  P.  Little  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Newport  its  active 
and  hard-working  Secretaries,  and  Miss  Little  doubtless  expressed 
the  feeling  which  actuated  all  its  members  in  a  letter  in  which 
she  said  that  "while  loyal  men  were  suffering,  loyal  women  must 
work  to  alleviate  their  sufferings."  The  "  Perm  Relief"  collected 
supplies  to  an  amount  exceeding  fifty  thousand  dollars,  which 
were  almost  wholly  sent  to  the  "front,"  and  distributed  by  such 
judicious  and  skilful  hands  as  Mrs.  Husband,  Mrs.  Hetty  K. 
Painter,  Mrs.  Mary  W.  Lee,  and  Miss  Anna  Carver. 

"TiiE  SOLDIERS'  AID  ASSOCIATION,"  was  organized  on  the 
28th  of  July,  1862,  mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Mary  A. 
Brady,  a  lady  of  West  Philadelphia,  herself  a  native  of  Ireland, 
but  the  wife  of  an  English  lawyer,  who  had  made  his  home  in 
Philadelphia,  in  1849.  Mrs.  Brady  was  elected  President  of  the 
Association,  and  the  first  labors  of  herself  and  her  associates  were 
expended  on  the  Satterlee  Hospital,  one  of  those  vast  institutions 


648  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

created  by  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Government,  which 
had  over  three  thousand  beds,  each  during  those  dark  and  dreary 
days  occupied  by  some  poor  sufferer.  In  this  great  hospital  these 
ladies  found,  for  a  time,  full  employment  for  the  hearts  and  hands 
of  the  Committees  who,  on  their  designated  days  of  the  week, 
ministered  to  these  thousands  of  sick  and  wounded  men,  and 
from  the  depot  of  supplies  which  the  Association  had  established 
at  the  hospital,  prepared  and  distributed  fruits,  food  skilfully  pre 
pared,  and  articles  of  hospital  clothing,  of  which  the  men  were 
greatly  in  need.  Those  cheering  ministrations,  reading  and  sing 
ing  to  the  men,  writing  letters  for  them,  and  the  dressing  and  ap 
plying  of  cooling  lotions  to  the  hot  and  inflamed  wounds  were  not 
forgotten  by  these  tender  and  kind-hearted  women. 

But  Mrs.  Brady  looked  forward  to  work  in  other  fields,  and 
the  exertion  of  a  wider  influence,  and  though  for  months,  she  and 
her  associates  felt  that  the  present  duty  must  first  be  done,  she 
desired  to  go  to  the  front,  and  there  minister  to  the  wounded  be 
fore  they  had  endured  all  the  agony  of  the  long  journey  to  the 
hospital  in  the  city.  The  patients  of  the  Satterlee  Hospital  were 
provided  with  an  ample  dinner  on  the  day  of  the  National 
Thanksgiving,  by  the  Association,  and  as  they  were  now  dimin 
ishing  in  numbers,  and  the  Auxiliary  Societies,  which  had  sprung 
up  throughout  the  State,  had  poured  in  abundant  supplies,  Mrs. 
Brady  felt  that  the  time  had  come  when  she  could  consistently 
enter  upon  the  work  nearest  her  heart.  In  the  winter  of  1863, 
she  visited  Washington,  and  the  hospitals  and  camps  which  were 
scattered  around  the  city,  at  distances  of  from  five  to  twenty 
miles.  Here  she  found  multitudes  of  sick  and  wounded,  all  suf 
fering  from  cold,  from  hunger,  or  from  inattention.  "  Camp 
Misery/'  with  its  twelve  thousand  convalescents,  in  a  condition 
of  intense  wretchedness  moved  her  sympathies,  and  led  her  to  do 
what  she  could  for  them.  She  returned  home  at  the  beginning 
of  April,  and  her  preparations  for  another  journey  were  hardly 
made,  before  the  battles  of  Chancellorsville  and  its  vicinity  oc- 


LADIES'  AID  SOCIETY  or  PHILADELPHIA.  649 

curred.  Here  at  the  great  field  hospital  of  Sedgwick's  (Sixth) 
Corps,  she  commenced  in  earnest  her  labors  in  the  care  of  the 
wounded  directly  from  the  field.  For  five  weeks  she  worked 
with  an  energy  and  zeal  which  were  the  admiration  of  all  who 
saw  her,  and  then  as  Lee  advanced  toward  Pennsylvania,  she  re 
turned  home  for  a  few  days  of  rest. 

Then  came  Gettysburg,  with  its  three  days  of  terrible  slaugh 
ter,  and  Mrs.  Brady  was  again  at  her  work  day  and  night,  fur 
nishing  soft  food  to  the  severely  wounded,  cooling  drinks  to  the 
thirsty  and  fever-stricken,  soothing  pain,  encouraging  the  men  to 
heroic  endurance  of  their  sufferings,  everywhere  an  angel  of  com 
fort,  a  blessed  and  healing  presence.  More  than  a  month  was 
spent  in  these  labors,  and  at  their  close  Mrs.  Brady  returned  to 
her  work  in  the  Hospitals  at  Philadelphia,  and  to  preparation  for 
the  autumn  and  winter  campaigns.  When  early  in  January, 
General  Meade  made  his  Mine  Run  Campaign,  Mrs.  Brady  had 
again  gone  to  the  front,  and  was  exposed  to  great  vicissitudes  of 
weather,  and  was  for  a  considerable  time  in  peril  from  the  ene 
my's  fire.  Her  exertions  and  exposures  at  this  time  brought  on 
disease  of  the  heart,  and  her  physician  forbade  her  going  to  the 
front  again.  She  however  made  all  the  preparations  she  could 
for  the  coming  campaign,  and  hoped,  though  vainly,  that  she 
might  be  permitted  again  to  enter  upon  the  work  she  loved. 
When  the  great  battles  of  May,  1864,  were  fought,  the  dreadful 
slaughter  which  accompanied  them,  so  disquieted  her,  that  it  ag 
gravated  her  disease,  and  on  the  27th  of  May,  she  died,  greatly 
mourned  by  all  who  knew  her  worth,  and  her  devotion  to  the 
national  cause. 

The  Association  continued  its  work  till  the  close  of  the  war. 
The  amount  of  its  disbursements,  we  have  not  been  able  to 
ascertain. 

82 


WOMEN'S    RELIEF    ASSOCIATION    OF 
BROOKLYN    AND    LONG    ISLAND. 


HE  city  of  Brooklyn,  Long  Island,  and  the  Island  of 
which  it  forms  the  Western  extremity,  were  from  the 
commencement  of  the  war  intensely  patriotic.  Regi 
ment  after  regiment  was  raised  in  the  city,  and  its  quota 
filled  from,  the  young  men  of  the  city,  and  the  towns  of  the 
island,  till  it  seemed  as  every  man  of  military  age,  and  most  of  the 
youth  between  fifteen  and  eighteen  had  been  drawn  into  the 
army.  An  enthusiastic  zeal  for  the  national  cause  had  taken  as 
complete  possession  of  the  women  as  of  the  men.  Everywhere 
were  seen  the  badges  of  loyalty,  and  there  was  no  lack  of  patient 
labor  or  of  liberal  giving  for  the  soldiers  on  the  part  of  those  who 
had  either  money  or  labor  to  bestow.  The  news  of  the  first  bat 
tle  was  the  signal  for  an  outpouring  of  clothing,  hospital  stores, 
cordials,  and  supplies  of  all  sorts,  which  were  promptly  forwarded 
to  the  field.  After  each  successive  engagement,  this  was  repeated, 
and  at  first,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  the  city, 
a  most  efficient  organization,  undertook  to  be  the  almoners  of  a 
part  of  the  bounty  of  the  citizens.  Distant  as  was  the  field  of 
Shiloh,  a  delegation  from  the  Association  went  thither,  bearing  a 
large  amount  of  hospital  stores,  and  rendered  valuable  assistance 
to  the  great  numbers  of  wounded.  Other  organizations  sprang 
up,  having  in  view  the  care  of  the  wounded  and  sick  of  the  army, 
and  many  contributors  entrusted  to  the  earnest  workers  at  Wash 
ington,  the  stores  they  were  anxious  to  bestow  upon  the  suffering. 

650 


RELIEF  ASSOCIATION  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  LONG  ISLAND.      651 

After  the  great  battles  of  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1862,  large 
numbers  of  the  sick  and  wounded  were  brought  to  Brooklyn,  for 
care  and  treatment  filling  at  one  time  three  hospitals.  They 
came  often  in  need  of  all  things,  and  the  benevolent  women  of 
the  city  formed  themselves  into  Committees,  to  visit  these  hospitals 
in  turn,  and  prepare  and  provide  suitable  dishes,  delicacies,  and 
special  diet  for  the  invalid  soldiers,  to  furnish  such  clothing  as 
was  needed,  to  read  to  them,  write  letters  for  them,  and  bestow 
upon  them  such  acts  of  kindness  as  should  cause  them  to  feel 
that  their  services  in  defense  of  the  nation  were  fully  appreciated 
and  honored. 

There  was,  however,  in  these  varied  efforts  for  the  soldiers  a 
lack  of  concentration  and  efficiency  which  rendered  them  less  ser 
viceable  than  they  otherwise  might  have  been.  The  different 
organizations  and  committees  working  independently  of  each 
other,  not  unfrequently  furnished  over-abundant  supplies  to  some 
regiments  or  hospitals,  while  others  were  left  to  lack,  and  many 
who  had  the  disposition  to  give,  hesitated  from  want  of  know 
ledge  or  confidence  in  the  organizations  which  would  disburse 
the  funds.  The  churches  of  the  city  though  giving  freely  when 
called  upon,  were  not  contributing  systematically,  or  putting  forth 
their  full  strength  in  the  service.  It  was  this  conviction  of  the 
need  of  a  more  methodical  and  comprehensive  organization  to 
which  the  churches,  committees,  and  smaller  associations  should 
become  tributary,  which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Women's 
Relief  Association,  as  a  branch  of  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission.  This  Association  was  organized  November  23d, 
1862,  at  a  meeting  held  by  the  Ladies  of  Brooklyn,  in  the  Lec 
ture  Room  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  MRS.  MARIAMNE 
FITCH  STRANAHAN,  was  chosen  President,  and  Miss  Kate  E.  Wa- 
terbury,  Secretary,  with  an  Executive  Committee  of  twelve  ladies 
of  high  standing  and  patriotic  impulses.  The  selection  of  Presi 
dent  and  Secretary  was  eminently  a  judicious  one.  MRS.  STRAN 
AHAN  was  a  native  of  Westmoreland,  Oneida  County,  New  York, 


652 

and  had  received  for  the  time,  and  the  region  in  which  her  child 
hood  and  youth  was  passed,  superior  advantages  of  education. 
She  was  married  in  1837,  to  Mr.  James  S.  T.  Stranahan,  then  a 
merchant  of  Florence,  Oneida  County,  New  York,  but  who  re 
moved  with  his  family  in  1840,  to  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  in 
1845,  took  up  his  residence  in  Brooklyn.  Here  they  occupied  a 
high  social  position,  Mr.  Stranahan  having  been  elected  a  Repre 
sentative  to  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress,  and  subsequently  ap 
pointed  to  other  positions  of  responsibility  in  the  city  and  State. 
Mrs.  Stranahan  was  active  in  every  good  work  in  the  city  of  her 
adoption,  and  those  who  knew  her  felt  that  they  could  confide  in 
her  judgment,  her  discernment,  her  tact,  and  her  unflinching  in 
tegrity  and  principle.  For  eight  years  she  was  the  first  Direc 
tress  of  the  "Graham  Institute,  for  the  relief  of  Aged  and 
Indigent  Females,"  a  position  requiring  the  exercise  of  rare 
abilities,  and  the  most  skilful  management,  to  harmonize  the  dis 
cords,  and  quiet  the  misunderstandings,  inevitable  in  such  an 
institution.  Her  discretion,  equanimity,  and  tact,  were  equal  to 
the  duties  of  the  place,  and  under  her  administration  peace  and 
quiet  reigned.  It  was  probably  from  the  knowledge  of  her  exe 
cutive  abilities,  that  she  was  unanimously  chosen  to  preside  over 
the  Women's  Relief  Association.  This  position  was  also  one  re 
quiring  great  tact  and  skill  in  the  presiding  officer.  About  eighty 
churches  of  different  denominations  in  Brooklyn,  cooperated  in 
the  work  of  the  Association,  and  it  had  also  numerous  auxiliaries 
scattered  over  the  Island.  These  diverse  elements  were  held  to 
gether  in  perfect  harmony,  by  Mrs.  Stranahan's  skilful  manage 
ment,  till  the  occasion  ceased  for  their  labors.  The  Association 
was  from  first  to  last  a  perfect  success,  surpassing  in  its  results 
most  of  the  branches  of  the  Commission,  and  surpassed  in  the 
harmony  and  efficiency  of  its  action  by  none. 

In  her  final  report  Mrs.  Stranahan  said:  "The  aggregate  of 
our  efforts  including  the  results  of  our  Great  Fair,  represents  a 
money  value  of  not  less  than  half  a  million  of  dollars."  Three 


BELIEF  ASSOCIATION  OF  BROOKLYN  AN1»  LONG  ISLAND.      653 

hundred  thousand  dollars  of  this  sum  were  paid  into  the  treasury 
of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission  in  cash;  and  hospital 
supplies  were  furnished  to  the  amount  of  over  two  hundred  thou 
sand  more.  The  Great  Fair  of  Brooklyn  had  its  origin  in  the 
Women's  Relief  Association.  At  first  it  was  proposed  that 
Brooklyn  should  unite  with  New  York  in  the  Metropolitan 
Fair;  but  on  further  deliberation  it  was  thought  that  a  much 
larger  result  would  be  attained  by  an  independent  effort  on  the 
part  of  Brooklyn  and  Long  Island,  and  the  event  fully  justified 
the  opinion.  The  conducting  of  such  a  fair  involved,  however, 
an  excessive  amount  of  labor  on  the  part  of  the  managers;  and 
notwithstanding  the  perfect  equanimity  and  self-possession  of 
Mrs.  Stranahan,  her  health  was  sensibly  affected  by  the  exertions 
she  was  compelled  to  make  to  maintain  the  harmony  and  effi 
ciency  of  so  many  and  such  varied  interests.  It  is  much  to  say, 
but  the  proof  of  the  statement  is  ample,  that  no  one  of  the  Sani 
tary  Fairs  held  from  1863  to  1865  equalled  that  of  Brooklyn  in 
its  freedom  from  all  friction  and  disturbing  influences,  in  the 
earnestness  of  its  patriotic  feeling,  and  the  complete  and  perfect 
harmony  which  reigned  from  its  commencement  to  its  close. 
This  gratifying  condition  of  affairs  was  universally  attributed  to 
the  extraordinary  tact  and  executive  talent  of  Mrs.  Stranahan. 

Rev.  Dr.  Spear,  her  pastor,  in  a  touching  and  eloquent  memo 
rial  of  her,  uses  the  following  language  in  regard  to  the  success  of 
her  administration  as  President  of  the  Women's  Relief  Associa 
tion  ;  "  It  is  due  to  truth  to  say  that  this  success  depended  very 
largely  upon  her  wisdom  and  her  efforts.  She  was  the  right 
woman  in  the  right  place.  She  gave  her  time  to  the  work  with 
a  zeal  and  perseverance  that  never  faltered,  and  with  a  hopeful 
ness  for  her  country  that  yielded  to  no  discouragement  or 
despondency.  As  a  presiding  officer  she  discharged  her  duties 
with  a  self-possession,  courtesy,  skill,  and  method,  that  com 
manded  universal  admiration.  She  had  a  quick  and  judicious 
insight  into  the  various  ways  and  means  by  which  the  meetings 


654 

of  the  Association  would  be  rendered  interesting  and  attractive. 
The  business  part  of  the  work  was  constantly  under  her  eye. 
No  woman  ever  labored  in  a  sphere  more  honorable;  and  but 
few  women  could  have  filled  her  place.  Her  general  temper  of 
mind,  her  large  and  catholic  views  as  a  Christian,  and  then  her 
excellent  discretion,  eminently  fitted  her  to  combine  all  the 
churches  in  one  harmonious  and  patriotic  effort.  This  was  her 
constant  study;  and  well  did  she  succeed.  As  an  evidence  of 
the  sentiments  with  which  she  had  inspired  her  associates,  the 
following  resolution  oifered  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Association, 
and  unanimously  adopted,  will  speak  for  itself: — 

" '  Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Women's  Eelief  Association  are  pre-emi 
nently  due  to  our  President,  Mrs.  J.  S.  T.  Stranahan,  for  the  singular  ability, 
wisdom,  and  patience  with  which  she  has  discharged  the  duties  of  her  office,  at 
all  times  arduous,  and  not  unfrequently  requiring  sacrifices  to  which  nothing 
short  of  the  deepest  love  of  country  could  have  been  equal.  It  is  due  to  justice, 
and  to  the  feelings  of  our  hearts,  to  say  that  the  usefulness,  the  harmony,  and 
the  continued  existence  of  the  Women's  Eelief  Association,  through  the  long 
and  painful  struggle,  now  happily  ended,  have  been  in  a  large  measure  owing 
to  the  combination  of  rare  gifts,  which  have  been  so  conspicuous  to  us  all  in  the 
guidance  of  our  public  meetings,  and  which  have  marked  not  less  the  more 
unnoticed,  but  equally  essential,  superintendence  of  the  work  in  private.'  " 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Bellows,  President  of  the  United  States  Sani 
tary  Commission,  thus  speaks  of  Mrs.  Stranahan  and  of  the 
Brooklyn  Woman's  Relief  Association,  of  which  she  was  the 
head : 

"Knowing  Mrs.  Stranahan  only  in  her  official  character,  as 
head  of  the  noble  band  of  women  who  through  the  war,  by  their 
admirable  organization  and  efficient,  patient  working,  made 
Brooklyn  a  shining  example  for  all  other  cities — I  wonder  that 
she  should  have  left  so  deep  a  personal  impression  upon  my 
heart;  and  that  from  a  dozen  interviews  confined  wholly  to  one 
subject,  I  should  have  conceived  a  friendship  for  her  which  it 
commonly  takes  a  life  of  various  intercourse  and  intimate  or 
familiar  relations  to  establish.  And  this  is  the  more  remarkable, 


BELIEF  ASSOCIATION  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  LONG  ISLAND.      655 

because  her  directness,  clearness  of  intention,  and  precision  of 
purpose  always  kept  her  confined,  in  the  conversations  I  held 
with  her,  to  the  special  subject  on  which  we  met  to  take  counsel. 
She  had  so  admirably  ordered  an  understanding,  was  so  business 
like  and  clear  in  her  habits  of  mind,  that  not  a  minute  was  lost 
with  her  in  beating  the  bush.  With  mild  determination,  and  in 
a  gentle  distinctness  of  tone,  she  laid  her  views  or  wishes  before 
me,  in  a  way  that  never  needed  any  other  explanation  or  enforce 
ment  than  her  simple  statement  carried  with  it.  In  few,  precise, 
and  transparent  words,  she  made  known  her  business,  or  gave 
her  opinion,  and  wasted  not  a  precious  minute  in  generalities,  or 
on  matters  aside  from  our  common  object.  This  rendered  my 
official  intercourse  with  her  peculiarly  satisfactory.  She  always 
knew  just  what  she  wanted  to  say,  and  left  no  uncertainty  as  to 
what  she  had  said;  and  what  she  said,  had  always  been  so  care 
fully  considered,  that  her  wishes  were  full  of  reason,  and  her 
advice  full  of  persuasion.  She  seemed  to  me  to  unite  the  greatest 
discretion  with  the  finest  enthusiasm.  As  earnest,  large,  and 
noble  in  her  views  of  what  was  due  to  the  National  cause,  as  the 
most  zealous  could  be,  she  was  yet  so  practical,  judicious,  and 
sober  in  her  judgment,  that  what  she  planned,  I  learned  to  regard 
as  certain  of  success.  No  one  could  see  her  presiding  with  min 
gled  modesty  and  dignity  over  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  Women's 
Relief  Association,  without  admiration  for  her  self-possession, 
propriety  of  utterance,  and  skill  in  furthering  the  objects  in  view. 
I  have  always  supposed  that  her  wisdom,  resolution,  and  perse 
verance,  had  a  controlling  influence  in  the  glorious  success  of  the 
Brooklyn  Relief  Association — the  most  marked  and  memorable 
fellowship  of  women,  united  from  all  sects  and  orders  of  Chris 
tians,  in  one  practical  enterprise,  that  the  world  ever  saw." 

After  the  disbanding  of  the  Women's  Relief  Association,  Mrs. 
Stranahan,  though  retaining  her  profound  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  her  country,  and  her  desire  for  its  permanent  pacification  by 
.such  measures  as  should  remove  all  further  causes  of  discord  and 


656 

strife,  returned  to  the  quiet  of  her  home,  and  except  her  connec 
tion  with  the  Graham  Institute,  gladly  withdrew  from  any  con 
spicuous  or  public  position.  Her  health  was  as  we  have  said 
impaired  somewhat  by  her  assiduous  devotion  to  her  duties  in 
connection  with  the  Association,  but  she  made  no  complaint,  and 
her  family  did  not  take  the  alarm.  The  spring  of  1866  found 
her  so  feeble,  that  it  was  thought  the  pure  and  bracing  air  of  the 
Green  Mountains  might  prove  beneficial  in  restoring  her  strength, 
but  her  days  were  numbered.  On  the  30th  of  August  she  died 
at  Manchester,  Vermont. 

In  closing  our  sketch  of  this  excellent  woman,  we  deem  it  due 
to  her  memory  to  give  the  testimony  of  two  clergymen  who  were 
well  acquainted  with  her. work  and  character,  to  her  eminent 
abilities,  and  her  extraordinary  worth.  Rev.  Dr.  Farley,  says 
of  her: 

"  When  I  think  of  the  amount  of  time,  thought,  anxious  and 
pains-taking  reflection,  and  active  personal  attention  and  effort 
she  gave  to  this  great  work ;  when  I  recall  how  for  nearly  three 
years,  with  other  weighty  cares  upon  her,  and  amid  failing  health, 
she  contrived  to  give  herself  so  faithfully  and  devotedly  to  carry 
ing  it  on,  I  am  lost  in  admiration.  True,  she  had  for  coadjutors 
a  company  of  noble  women,  worthy  representatives  of  our  great 
and  beautiful  city.  They  represented  every  phase  of  our  socdal 
and  religious  life ;  they  were  distinguished  by  all  the  various 
traits  which  are  the  growth  of  education  and  habit ;  they  had  on 
many  subjects  few  views  or  associations  in  common.  In  one 
thing,  indeed,  they  were  united — the  desire  to  serve  their  country 
in  her  hour  of  peril,  by  ministering  to  the  sufferings  of  her  he 
roic  defenders  in  the  field.  Acting  on  this  thought — knowing  no 
personal  distinctions  where  this  was  the  prevailing  sentiment-^- 
and  treating  all  with  the  like  courtesy — she  had  yet  the  nice  tact 
to  call  into  requisition  for  special  emergencies  the  precise  talent 
which  was  wanted,  and  give  it  its  right  direction.  Now  and 
then — strange  if  it  had  not  been  so — there  would  be  some  ques- 


RELIEF  ASSOCIATION  OF  BROOKLYN  AND  LONG  ISLAND.      657 

tioning  of  her  proposed  measures,  some  demur  to,  or  reluctance 
to  accept  her  suggestions;  but  among  men,  the  case  would  be 
found  a  rare  one,  where  a  presiding  officer  carried  so  largely  and 
uniformly,  from  first  to  last,  the  concurrent  judgment  and  ap 
proval  of  his  compeers. 

"  I  shall  always  call  her  to  mind  as  among  the  remarkable  wo 
men  whom  I  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  know.  With  no 
especial  coveting  of  notoriety,  she  was — as  one  might  say — in  the 
course  of  nature,  or  rather — as  I  prefer  to  say — in  the  order  of 
the  Divine  Providence,  called  to  occupy  very  responsible  positions 
bearing  largely  on  the  public  weal ;  and  she  was  not  found  want 
ing.  Nay,  she  was  found  eminently  fit.  All  admitted  it.  And 
all  find,  now  that  she  has  been  taken  to  her  rest,  that  they  owe 
her  every  grateful  and  honored  remembrance." 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Budington,  D.D.,  who  had  known  her  ac 
tivity  and  zeal  in  the  various  positions  she  had  been  called  to  fill, 
pays  the  following  eloquent  tribute  to  her  memory : 

"  I  had  known  Mrs.  Stranahan  chiefly,  in  common  with  the 
citizens  of  Brooklyn,  as  the  head  of  the  '  Women's  Relief  As 
sociation/  and  thus,  as  the  representative  of  the  patriotism  and 
Christian  benevolence  of  the  Ladies  of  Brooklyn,  in  that  great 
crisis  of  our  national  history  which  drew  forth  all  that  was  best 
in  our  countrymen  and  countrywomen,  and  nowhere  more  than 
in  our  own  city.  Most  naturally — inevitably,  I  may  say — she  became 
the  presiding  officer  of  this  most  useful  and  efficient  Association. 
Possessed  naturally  of  a  strong  mind,  clear  in  her  perceptions, 
and  logical  in  her  courses  of  thought,  she  had,  at  the  outset  of 
the  struggle,  the  most  decided  convictions  of  duty,  and  entered 
into  the  work  of  national  conservation  with  a  heartiness  and  self- 
devotion,  which,  in  a  younger  person,  would  have  been  called 
enthusiasm,  but  which  in  her  case  was  only  the  measure  of  an 
enlightened  Christianity  and  patriotism.  She  toiled  untiringly, 
in  season  and  out  of  season ;  when  others  flagged,  she  supplied 
the  lack  by  giving  more  time,  and  redoubling  her  exertions ;  as 

83 


658  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  war  wore  wearily  on,  and  disasters  came,  enfeebling  some,  and 
confounding  others,  she  rose  to  sublimer  efforts,  and  supplied  the 
ranks  of  the  true  and  faithful  who  gathered  round  her,  with  the 
proper  watchwords  and  fresh  resources.  I  both  admired  and 
wondered  at  her  in  this  regard ;  and  when  success  came,  crown 
ing  the  labors  and  sacrifices  of  our  people,  her  soul,  was  less 
filled  with  mere  exultation  than  with  sober  thoughtfulness  as  to 
what  still  remained  to  be  done.  *  *  *  * 

"  I  regard  Mrs.  Stranahan  as  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  of 
that  galaxy  of  women,  whom  the  night  of  our  country's  sorrow 
disclosed,  and  whose  light  will  shine  forever  in  the  land  they 
have  done  their  part — I  dare  not  say,  how  great  a  part — to  save." 

We  should  do  gross  injustice  to  this  efficient  Association,  if  we 
neglected  to  give  credit  to  its  other  officers,  for  their  faithfulness 
and  persevering  energy  during  the  whole  period  of  its  existence. 
Especially  should  the  services  of  its  patient  and  hard-working 
Corresponding  Secretary,  Miss  Kate  E.  Waterbury,  be  acknow 
ledged.  Next  to  the  president,  she  was  its  most  efficient  officer, 
ever  at  her  post,  and  performing  her  duties  with  a  thoroughness 
and  heartiness  which  called  forth  the  admiration  of  all  who  wit 
nessed  her  zeal  and  devotion.  Miss  Perkins,  the  faithful  agent 
in  charge  of  the  dep6t  of  supplies  and  rooms  of  the  Association, 
was  also  a  quiet  and  persevering  toiler  for  the  promotion  of  its 
great  objects. 


LADIES'    UNION    RELIEF   ASSOCIA 
TIONS    OF    BALTIMORE. 


MIDST  the  malign  influences  of  secession  and  treason, 
entire  and  unqualified  devotion  to  the  Union,  shone 
with  additional  brightness  from  its  contrast  with  sur 
rounding  darkness.  In  all  portions  of  the  South  were 
found  examples  of  this  patriotic  devotion,  and  nowhere  did  it 
display  itself  more  nobly  than  in  the  distracted  city  of  Baltimore. 
The  Union  people  were  near  enough  to  the  North  with  its  patri 
otic  sentiment,  and  sufficiently  protected  by  the  presence  of  Union 
soldiery,  to  be  able  to  act  with  the  freedom  and  spontaneity  de 
nied  to  their  compatriots  of  the  extreme  South,  and  they  did  act 
nobly  for  the  cause  of  their  country  and  its  defenders. 

Among  the  ladies  of  Baltimore,  few  were  more  constantly  or 
conspicuously  employed,  for  the  benefit  of  sufferers  from  the  war, 
than  MES.  ELIZABETH  M.  STREETER.  With  the  modesty  that  al 
most  invariably  accompanies  great  devotion  and  singleness  of  pur 
pose  she  sought  no  public  notice ;  but  in  the  case  of  one  so 
actively  employed  in  good  works,  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  it. 

More  than  one  of  the  Associations  of  Ladies  formed  in  Balti 
more  for  the  relief  of  soldiers,  of  their  families,  and  of  refugees 
from  secession,  owes  its  inception,  organization,  and  successful 
career  to  the  mind  and  energies  of  Mrs.  Streeter.  It  may  truly 
be  said  of  her  that  she  has  refused  no  work  which  her  hands 
could  find  to  accomplish. 

Mrs.  Streeter  was  the  wife  of  the  late  Hon.  S.  F.  Streeter,  Esq., 

659 


660 

a  well-known  citizen  of  Baltimore,  a  member  of  the  city  Govern 
ment  during  the  war,  an  active  Union  man,  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  his  country  and  her  defenders  as  indefatigably  as  his  admira 
ble  wife.  Working  in  various  organizations,  he  was  made  an 
almoner  of  the  city  funds  bestowed  upon  the  families  of  soldiers, 
and  upon  hospitals,  and  afterwards  appointed  in  conjunction  with 
George  R.  Dodge,  Esq.,  to  distribute  the  appropriation  of  the 
State,  for  the  families  of  Maryland  soldiers.  Thus  the  two  were 
continually  working  side  by  side,  or  in  separate  spheres  of  labor, 
for  the  same  cause,  all  through  the  dark  days  of  the  rebellion. 

Mrs.  Streeter  was  born  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  her  ances 
tors,  the  Jacksons,  having  been  among  the  original  settlers  of  the 
old  Colony,  and  she  has  doubtless  inherited  the  ancestral  love  of 
freedom.  For  thirty  years  she  has  been  a  resident  of  Baltimore. 

On  the  16th  of  October,  1861,  she  originated  the  Ladies' 
Union  Relief  Association,  of  Baltimore,  and  in  connection  with 
other  zealous  loyal  ladies,  carried  on  its  operations  for  more  than 
a  year  with  great  success.  From  this  as  a  center,  sprang  other 
similar  associations  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  and  connected 
with  the  various  hospitals. 

After  the  battle  of  Antietam,  Mrs.  Streeter,  with  Mrs.  Pan- 
coast,  a  most  energetic  member  of  the  Association,  spent  some 
time  on  the  field  dispensing  supplies,  and  attending  to  the  wants 
of  the  wounded,  suffering  and  dying. 

Exhausted  by  her  labors  and  responsibilities,  at  the  end  of  a 
year,  Mrs.  Streeter  resigned  her  official  connection  with  the  La 
dies'  Relief  Association,  and  after  a  brief  period  of  repose,  she 
devoted  herself  to  personal  visitation  of  the  hospitals,  dispensing 
needed  comforts  and  delicacies,  and  endeavoring  by  conversation 
with  the  inmates  to  cheer  them,  stimulate  their  patriotism,  and  to 
make  their  situation  in  all  respects,  more  comfortable. 

Subsequently,  she  connected  herself  with  the  hospital  attached 
to  the  Union  Relief  Association,  located  at  120  South  Eutaw 
Street,  Baltimore.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  discontinuance  of  the 


work  of  the  Association,  she  gave  it  her  daily  attendance,  and 
added  largely  to  its  resources  by  way  of  supplies. 

At  this  time,  Baltimore  was  thronged  by  the  families  of  refu 
gees,  who  were  rendered  insecure  in  their  homes  by  the  fact  of 
their  entertaining  Union  sentiments,  or  homeless,  by  some  of  the 
bands  of  marauders  which  followed  the  advance  of  the  Confederate 
troops  when  they  invaded  Maryland,  or,  who  perhaps,  living  unfor 
tunately  in  the  very  track  of  the  conflicting  armies,  found  them 
selves  driven  from  their  burning  homesteads,  and  devastated 
fields,  victims  of  a  wanton  soldiery.  Destitute,  ragged  and 
shelterless,  their  condition  appealed  with  peculiar  force  to  the 
friends  of  the  Union.  State  aid  was  by  no  means  sufficient,  and 
unorganized  charity  unavailable  to  any  great  extent. 

Mrs.  Streeter  was  one  of  the  first  to  see  the  need  of  systematic  as 
sistance  for  this  class.  On  the  16th  of  November,  1863,  the 
result  of  her  interest  was  seen  in  the  organization  of  the  "  La 
dies'  Aid  Society,  for  the  Belief  of  Soldiers7  Families,"  which 
included  in  its  efforts  the  relief  of  all  destitute  female  refugees. 
A  house  was  taken  more  particularly  to  accommodate  these  last, 
and  the  Association,  which  consisted  of  twenty-five  ladies,  pro 
ceeded  to  visit  the  families  of  soldiers  and  refugees  in  person,  in 
quiring  into  their  needs,  and  dispensing  money,  food,  clothing, 
shoes,  fuel,  etc.,  as  required.  Over  twelve  hundred  families  were 
thus  visited  and  relieved,  in  addition  to  the  inmates  of  the  Home. 
For  this  purpose  they  received  from  the  city  and  various  asso 
ciations  about  seven  thousand  dollars,  and  a  large  amount  from 
private  contributions.  In  this  and  kindred  work,  Mrs.  Streeter 
was  engaged  till  the  close  of  the  war. 

The  second  report  of  the  Maryland  Committee  of  the  Christian 
Commission  thus  speaks  of  the  services  of  the  devoted  women 
who  proceeded  to  the  field  after  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  there 
ministered  to  the  wants  of  the  suffering  and  wounded  soldiers. 

"  Attendance  in  the  hospitals  upon  the  wounded  at  Antietam, 
was  required  for  several  months  after  the  battle.  Services  and  sup- 


662 

plies  were  furnished  by  the  Committee,  principally  through  the 
agency  of  the  ladies  of  the  Relief  Associations,  to  whom  the  Com 
mittee  acknowledge  its  indebtedness  for  important  and  necessary 
labors,  which  none  but  themselves  could  so  well  perform.  The 
hospitals  were  located  near  the  battle-field,  and  the  adjacent 
towns,  and  in  Baltimore  and  Frederick  cities.  Connected  with 
each  of  them  there  was  a  band  of  faithful  and  devoted  women, 
who  waited  about  the  beds  of  the  suffering  objects  of  their  con 
cern,  and  ministered  to  their  relief  and  comfort  during  the  hours 
of  their  affliction.  Through  the  months  of  September,  October, 
and  November,  these  messengers  of  mercy  labored  among  the 
wounded  of  Antietam,  and  were  successful  in  saving  the  lives  of 
hundreds  of  the  badly  wounded.  They  had  not  yet  cleared  the 
hospitals,  when  other  battles  added  to  their  number,  and  made 
new  drafts  for  services,  which  were  promptly  and  cheerfully 
rendered." 

Many  times  the  Committee  take  occasion  to  mention  the  valu 
able  services  of  the  loyal  ladies  of  Baltimore,  and  the  services  of 
Mrs.  Streeter  are  specially  noticed  in  the  third  report  in  connec 
tion  with  the  Invalid  Camp  Hospital  located  at  the  boundary  of 
the  city  and  county  of  Baltimore  in  the  vicinity  of  Northern 
Avenue. 

"The  services  to  this  camp,  usually  performed  by  ladies,  were 
under  the  supervision  of  Mrs.  S.  F.  Streeter,  who  visited  the 
grounds  daily,  on  several  occasions  several  times  a  day.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Committee  has  frequently  met  Mrs.  Streeter  on 
her  errand  of  benevolence,  conveying  to  the  sufferers  the  deli 
cacies  she  had  prepared.  Her  active  and  faithful  services  were 
continued  until  the  breaking  up  of  the  camp." 

The  ladies  of  Baltimore  worked  in  connection  with  the  Sani 
tary  and  Christian  Commissions,  both  of  which  organizations 
take  occasion  frequently  to  acknowledge  their  services. 

Late  in  1864,  Mrs.  Streeter  was  called  to  deep  affliction.  Her 
noble-hearted  and  patriotic  husband,  who  had  been  as  active  as 


herself  in  all  enterprises  for  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers,  and  the 
promotion  of  the  cause  for  which  the  war  was  undertaken,  was 
suddenly  taken  from  her,  falling  a  victim  to  fever  contracted  in 
his  ministrations  to  the  sick  and  wounded  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  the  home  and  city  where  his  presence  had  been  to 
her  a  joy  and  delight,  became,  since  he  was  gone  too  full  of 
gloom  and  sorrow  to  be  borne.  Mrs.  Streeter  returned  to  her 
New  England  home  in  the  hope  of  finding  there  some  relief  from 
the  grief  which  overwhelmed  her  spirit. 

Two  other  ladies  of  Baltimore,  and  doubtless  many  more, 
deserve  especial  mention  in  this  connection,  Miss  TYSON,  and 
Mrs.  BECK.  Active  and  efficient  members  of  the  Ladies'  Relief 
Association  of  that  city,  they  were  also  active  and  eminently  f 
useful  in  the  field  and  general  hospitals.  To  the  hospital  work 
they  seem  both  to  have  been  called  by  Mrs.  John  Harris,  who 
to  her  other  good  qualities  added  that  of  recognizing  instinct 
ively,  the  women  who  could  be  made  useful  in  the  work  in 
which  she  was  engaged. 

Miss  Tyson  was  with  Mrs.  Harris  at  French's  Division  Hos 
pital,  after  Antietam,  and  subsequently  at  Smoketown  General 
Hospital,  and  after  six  or  eight  weeks  of  labor  there,  was  attacked 
with  typhoid  fever.  Her  illness  was  protracted,  but  she  finally 
recovered  and  resumed  her  work,  going  with  Mrs.  Harris  to  the 
West,  and  during  most  of  the  year  1864,  was  in  charge  of  the 
Low  Diet  Department  of  the  large  hospital  on  Lookout  Moun 
tain.  Few  ladies  equalled  her  in  skill  in  the  preparation  of  suit 
able  food  and  delicacies  for  those  who  needed  special  diet.  Miss 
Tyson  was  a  faithful,  indefatigable  worker,  and  not  only  gave 
her  services  to  the  hospitals,  but  expended  largely  of  her  own 
means  for  the  soldiers.  She  was  always,  however,  disposed  to 
shrink  from  any  mention  of  her  work,  and  we  are  compelled  to 
content  ourselves  with  this  brief  mention  of  her  great  usefulness. 

Mrs.  Beck  was  also  a   faithful   and    laborious  aide  to   Mrs. 
Harris,  at  Falmouth,  and  afterwards  at  the  West.     She  was,  we 


664  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

believe,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  though  residing  in  Baltimore. 
Her  earnestness  and  patience  in  many  very  trying  circumstances, 
elicited  the  admiration  of  all  who  knew  her.  She  was  an  excel 
lent  singer,  and  when  she  sang  in  the  hospitals  some  of  the  pop 
ular  hymns,  the  words  and  melody  would  often  awaken  an 
interest  in  the  heart  of  the  soldier  for  a  better  life. 


MRS.    C.   T.    FENN. 


ERKSHIKE  County,  Massachusetts,  has  long  been 
noted  as  the  birth-place  of  many  men  and  women  dis 
tinguished  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the  best  phases  of 
American  life,  literature,  law,  science,  art,  philosophy, 
as  well  as  religion,  philanthropy,  and  the  industrial  and  commer 
cial  progress  of  our  country  have  all  been  brilliantly  illustrated 
and  powerfully  aided  by  those  who  drew  their  first  breath,  and 
had  their  earliest  home  among  the  green  hills  and  lovely  valleys 
of  Berkshire.  Bryant  gained  the  inspiration  of  his  poems — sweet, 
tender,  refined,  elevating — from  its  charming  scenery;  and  from 
amidst  the  same  scenes  Miss  Sedgwick  gathered  up  the  quiet 
romance  of  country  life,  often  as  deep  as  silent,  and  wove  it  into 
those  delightful  tales  which  were  the  joy  of  our  youthful  hearts. 

The  men  of  Berkshire  are  brave  and  strong,  its  women  fair  and 
noble.  Its  mountains  are  the  green  altars  upon  which  they 
kindled  the  fires  of  their  patriotism.  And  these  fires  brightened 
a  continent,  and  made  glad  the  heart  of  a  nation. 

Berkshire  had  gained  the  prestige  of  its  patriotism -in  two  wars, 
and  at  the  sound  of  the  signal  gun  of  the  rebellion  its  sons — 
"  brave  sons  of  noble  sires" — young  men,  and  middle-aged,  and 
boys,  sprang  to  arms.  Its  regiments  were  among  the  first  to 
answer  the  call  of  the  country  and  to  offer  themselves  for  its 
defense.  Let  Ball's  Bluff  and  the  Wilderness,  the  Chickahominy, 
and  the  deadly  swamps  and  bayous  of  the  Southwest,  tell  to  the 

84  665 


666  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  IHE  CIVIL  WAR. 

listening  world  the  story  of  their  bravery,  their  endurance  and 
their  sacrifices. 

But  these  men  who  went  forth  to  fight  left  behind  them,  in 
their  homes,  hearts  as  brave  and  strong  as  their  own.  If  Berk 
shire  has  a  proud  record  of  the  battle-field,  not  less  proud  is  that 
which  might  be  written  of  her  home  work.  Its  women  first  gave 
their  best  beloved  to  the  defense  of  the  country,  and  then,  in 
their  desolate  homes,  all  through  the  slow  length  of  those  hor 
rible,  sometimes  hopeless  years,  by  labor  and  sacrifice,  by  thought 
and  care,  they  gave  themselves  to  the  more  silent  but  not  less 
noble  work  of  supplying  the  needs  and  ministering  to  the  com 
forts  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiery. 

Foremost  among  these  noble  women,  as  the  almoner  of  their 
bounty,  and  the  organizer  of  their  efforts,  stands  the  subject  of 
this  sketch,  Mrs.  C.  T.  Fenn,  of  Pittsfield,  whose  devotion  to  the 
work  during  the  entire  war  was  unintermitted  and  untiring. 

Mrs.  Fenn,  whose  maiden  name  was  Dickinson,  was  born  in 
Pittsfield  just  before  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and  with  the 
exception  of  a  brief  residence  in  Boston,  has  passed  her  entire  life 
there.  Her  husband,  Deacon  Curtis  T.  Fenn,  an  excellent  citi 
zen,  and  enterprising  man  of  business,  in  his  "  haste  to  be  rich/' 
was  at  one  time  tempted  to  venture  largely,  and  became  bound 
for  others.  The  result  was  a  failure,  and  a  removal  to  Boston 
with  the  idea  of  retrieving  his  fortunes  in  new  scenes.  Here  his 
only  son,  a  promising  young  man  of  twenty-two  years,  fell  ill, 
and  with  the  hope  of  arresting  his  disease,  and  if  possible  saving 
his  precious  life,  his  parents  returned  to  his  native  place,  giving 
up  their  flattering  prospects  in  the  metropolis.  It  was  in  vain, 
however — in  a  few  months  the  insidious  disease,  always  so  fatal 
in  New  England,  claimed  its  victim,  and  they  were  bereaved  in 
their  dearest  hopes. 

This  affliction  did  not  change,  but  perhaps  intensified,  the 
character  of  Mrs.  Fenn.  She  was  now  called  to  endure  labor, 
and  to  make  many  sacrifices,  while  her  husband  was  slowly  win- 


MRS.  C.  T.  FENN.  667 

11  ing  his  way  back  to  competence.  But  ever  full  of  kindness  and 
sympathy,  she  devoted  her  time  more  unsparingly  to  doing  good. 
Her  name  became  a  synonym  for  spontaneous  benevolence  in  her 
native  town.  By  the  bed-sides  of  the  sick  and  dying,  in  the 
home  of  poverty,  and  the  haunts  of  disease,  where  sin,  and  sorrow 
and  suffering,  that  trinity  of  human  woe  are  ever  to  be  found, 
she  became  a  welcome  and  revered  visitant.  All  sought  her  in 
trouble,  and  she  withheld  not  counsel  nor  aid  in  any  hour  of 
need,  nor  from  any  who  claimed  them. 

This  was  the  prestige  with  which  she  was  surrounded  at  the 
opening  of  the  war,  and  her  warm  heart,  as  well  as  her  patriotic 
instincts  were  at  once  ready  for  any  work  of  kindness  or  aid  it 
should  develop.  The  following  extract  from  the  Berkshire 
County  Eagle,  of  May,  1862,  tells  better  than  we  can  of  the 
estimation  in  which  she  was  held  in  her  native  town. 

"Mrs.  Fenn,  as  most  of  our  Pittsfield  readers  know,  has  been 
for  many  years  the  kind  and  familiar  friend  of  the  sick  and  suf 
fering.  Familiar  with  its  shades,  her  step  in  the  sick  chamber 
has  been  as  welcome  and  as  beneficial  as  that  of  the  physician. 
When  the  ladies  were  appealed  to  for  aid  for  our  soldiers  suffer 
ing  from  wounds  or  disease,  she  entered  into  the  work  with  her 
whole  soul  and  devoted  all  her  time  and  the  skill  learned  in 
years  of  attendance  on  the  sick  to  the  new  necessities.  Possessing 
the  entire  confidence,  of  our  citizens,  and  appealing  to  them  per 
sonally  and  assiduously,  she  was  met  by  generous  and  well  selected 
contributions  which  we  have,  from  time  to  time,  chronicled.  In 
her  duties  at  the  work  room,  in  preparing  the  material  contributed, 
she  has  had  constant  and  reliable  assistance,  but  very  much  less 
than  was  needed,  a  defect  which  we  hope  will  be  remedied. 
Surely  many  of  our  ladies  have  leisure  to  relieve  her  of  a  portion 
of  her  work,  and  we  trust  that  some  of  our  patriotic  boys  will 
give  their  aid,  for  we  learn  that  even  such  duties  as  the  sweeping 
of  the  rooms  devolve  upon  her. 

"Knowing  that  Mrs.  Fenn's  entire  time  had  been  occupied  for 


668 

months  in  this  great  and  good  cause,  and  that  all  her  time  was 
not  adequate  to  the  manifold  duties  imposed  upon  her,  we  were 
somewhat  surprised  to  see  a  letter  addressed  to  her  in  print  a  few 
weeks  since,  complimenting  her  upon  her  efforts  for  the  soldiers 
and  asking  her  to  give  her  aid  in  collecting  hospital  stores  for  the 
clinic  at  the  Medical  College.  Surely  thought  we,  there  ought 
to  be  more  than  one  Dorcas  in  Pittsfield..  Indeed,  it  occurred  to 
us  that  there  were  ladies  here  who,  however  repugnant  to  aid  the 
soldiers  of  the  North,  could,  without  violence  to  their  feelings  so 
far  as  the  object  is  concerned,  gracefully  employ  a  share  of  their 
elegant  leisure  in  the  service  of  the  Medical  College.  But  Mrs. 
Fenn  did  not  refuse  the  new  call,  and  having  let  her  charity 
begin  at  home  with  those  who  are  dearest  and  nearest  to  our 
hearts,  our  country's  soldiers,  expanded  it  to  embrace  those  whose 
claim  is  also  imperative,  the  poor  whom  we  have  always  with  us, 
and  made  large  collections  for  the  patients  of  the  clinic. 

"We  have  thus  briefly  sketched  the  services  of  this  noble 
woman,  partly  in  justice  to  her,  but  principally  as  an  incentive 
to  others." 

Very  early  in  the  war,  a  meeting  of  the  ladies  of  Pittsfield 
was  called  with  the  intention  of  organizing  the  services,  so  en 
thusiastically  proffered  on  all  hands,  for  the  benefit  of  the  sol 
diers.  It  was  quite  numerously  attended,  and  the  interest  and 
feeling  was  evidently  intense.  But  they  failed  to  organize  any 
thing  beyond  a  temporary  association.  All  wanted  to  work,  but 
none  to  lead.  All  looked  to  Mrs.  Fenn  as  head  and  leader,  while 
she  was  more  desirous  of  being  hand  and  follower.  No  consti 
tution  was  adopted,  nor  officers  elected.  But  as  the  general  ex 
pression  of  feeling  seemed  to  be  that  all  should  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  Mrs.  Fenn,  the  meeting  adjourned  with  a  tacit  under 
standing  to  that  effect. 

And  so  it  remained  until  the  close  of  the  work.  Mrs.  Fenn 
continued  to  be  the  life  and  soul  of  the  movement,  and  there  was 
never  any  organization.  In  answer  to  her  appeals,  the  people  of 


MRS.  C.  T.  FENN.  669 

Pittsfield,  of  many  towns  in  Berkshire,  as  well  as  numbers  of 
the  adjoining  towns  in  the  State  of  New  York,  forwarded  to  her 
their  various  and  liberal  contributions.  She  hired  rooms  in  one 
of  the  business  blocks,  where  the  ladies  were  invited  to  meet 
daily  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  clothing,  lint,  and  bandages, 
and  where  all  articles  and  money  were  to  be  sent. 

Such  was  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  people,  that  they 
Ireely  placed  in  her  hands  all  these  gifts,  without  stint  or  fear. 
She  received  and  disbursed  large  sums  of  money  and  valuable 
stores  of  all  kinds,  and  to  the  last  occupied  this  responsible  posi 
tion  without  murmur  or  distrust  on  the  part  of  any,  only  from 
time  to  time  acknowledging  her  receipts  through  the  public 
prints. 

Pittsfield  is  a  wealthy  town,  with  large  manufacturing  inter 
ests,  and  Mrs.  Fenn  was  well  sustained  and  aided  in  all  her 
efforts,  by  valuable  contributions.  She  received  also  the  most 
devoted  and  efficient  assistance  from  numerous  ladies.  Among 
these  may  be  named,  Mrs.  Barnard,  Mrs.  Oliver,  during  the 
whole  time,  Mrs.  Brewster,  Mrs.  Dodge,  Mrs.  Pomeroy,  and 
many  others,  either  constantly  or  at  all  practicable  periods.  Young 
ladies,  reared  in  luxury,  and  unaccustomed  to  perform  any 
laborious  services  in  their  own  homes,  would  at  the  Sanitary 
Eooms  sew  swiftly  upon  the  coarsest  work,  and  shrink  from  no 
toil.  A  few  of  this  class,  during  the  second  winter  of  the  war 
manufactured  thirty-one  pairs  of  soldiers'  trowsers,  and  about 
fifty  warm  circular  capes  from  remnants  of  heavy  cloth  contributed 
for  this  use  by  Robert  Pomeroy,  Esq.,  a  wealthy  manufacturer 
of  Pittsfield.  The  stockings,  mittens  of  yarn  and  cloth,  and  hos 
pital  clothing  of  every  variety,  are  too  numerous  to  be  men 
tioned. 

Meanwhile  supplies  of  every  kind  and  description  poured  in. 
All  of  these  Mrs.  Fenn  received,  acknowledged,  collected  many 
of  them  by  her  own  personal  efforts,  and  then  with  her  own  hands 
arranged,  packed,  and  forwarded  them.  During  the  war  more 


670 

than  nine  thousand  five  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  supplies  thus 
passed  directly  through  her  hands,  and  of  these  nothing  save  one 
barrel  of  apples  at  David's  Island,  was  ever  lost. 

During  the  entire  four  years  of  the  war,  she  devoted  three  days 
of  the  week  to  this  work,  often  all  the  days.  But  these  three 
she  called  the  "  soldiers'  days,"  and  caused  it  to  be  known  among 
her  friends  that  this  was  not  her  time,  and  could  not  be  devoted 
to  personal  work  or  pleasure. 

The  Sanitary  Rooms  were  more  than  half  a  mile  distant  from 
her  own  home.  But  on  all  these  mornings,  immediately  after 
breakfast,  she  proceeded  to  them,  on  foot,  (for  she  kept  no  car 
riage),  carrying  with  her,  her  lunch,  and  at  mid-day,  making 
herself  that  old  lady's  solace,  a  cup  of  tea,  and  remaining  as  long 
as  she  could  see;  busily  at  work,  receiving  letters,  supplies,  ac 
knowledging  the  same,  packing  and  unpacking,  buying  needed 
articles,  cutting  out  and  preparing  work,  and  answering  the  nu 
merous  and  varied  calls  upon  her  time.  After  the  fatiguing 
labors  of  such  a  day,  she  would  again  return  to  her  home  on  foot, 
unless,  as  was  very  frequently  the  case,  some  friend  took  her  up 
in  the  street,  or  was  thoughtful  enough  to  come  and  fetch  her  in 
carriage  or  sleigh.  When  we  reflect  that  these  tasks  were  under 
taken  in  all  weathers,  and  at  all  seasons,  by  a  lady  past  her 
sixtieth  year,  during  so  long  a  period,  we  are  astonished  at  learn 
ing  that  her  health  was  never  seriously  injured,  and  that  she  was 
able  to  perform  all  her  duties  with  comfort,  and  without  yielding 
to  fatigue. 

In  addition  to  these  labors,  she  devoted  much  time  and  personal 
attention  to  such  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  as  fell  in  her  way, 
cheered  and  aided  many  a  raw  recruit,  faltering  on  the  thresh- 
hold  of  his  new  and  dangerous  career.  Twice,  at  least,  in  each 
year,  she  herself  proceeded  to  the  hospitals  at  New  York,  or  some 
other  point,  herself  the  bearer  of  the  bounties  she  had  arranged, 
and  in  some  years  she  made  more  frequent  visits. 

Early  in  her  efforts,  she  joined  hands  with  Mrs.  Col.  G.  T.  M. 


MRS.  C.  T.  FENIST.  671 

Davis,  of  New  York,  (herself  a  native  of  Pittsfield,  and  a  sister 
of  Robert  Pomeroy,  Esq.,  of  that  place),  in  the  large  and  abun 
dant  efforts  of  that  lady,  for  the  welfare  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers.  Mrs.  Davis  was  a  member  of  the  Park  Barracks'  La 
dies'  Aid  Society,  and  through  her  a  large  part  of  the  bounty  of 
Berkshire  was  directed  in  that  channel.  The  sick  and  weary, 
and  fainting  men  at  the  Barracks,  at  the  New  England  Rooms, 
and  Bedloe's  Island,  were  principally  aided  by  this  Association, 
which  were  not  long  in  discovering  the  great  value  of  the  nicely 
selected,  arranged  and  packed  articles  contained  in  the  boxes 
which  had  passed  through  the  hands  of  Mrs.  Fenn,  and  came 
from  Pittsfield. 

But  the  ladies  of  this  Association,  were  desirous  of  concentrat 
ing  all  their  efforts  upon  the  sufferers  who  had  reached  New  York, 
while  Mrs.  Fenn,  and  her  associates  in  Berkshire,  desired  to  place 
no  bound  or  limit  to  their  divine  charity.  The  soldiers  of  the 
whole  army  were  their  soldiers,  and  all  had  equal  wants,  and 
equal  rights.  Thus  they  often  answered  individual  appeals  from 
a  variety  of  sources,  and  their  supplies  often  helped  to  fit  out  ex 
peditions,  and  were  sent  to  Sherman's  and  Grant's,  and  Burnside's 
forces — to  Annapolis,  to  Alexandria,  to  the  Andersonville  and 
Libby  prisoners,  and  wherever  the  cry  for  help  seemed  most 
importunate. 

Among  other  things,  Mrs.  Fenn  organized  a  plan  for  giving 
refreshments  to  the  weary  soldiers,  who  from  time  to  time  passed 
through  Pittsfield.  A  signal  gun  would  be  fired  when  a  trans 
port-train  reached  the  station  at  Richmond,  ten  miles  distant,  and 
the  ladies  would  hasten  to  prepare  the  palatable  lunch  and  cool 
ing  drink,  against  the  arrival  of  the  wearied  men,  and  to  dis 
tribute  them  with  their  own  hands. 

In  the  fall  of  1862,  Mrs.  Fenn,  herself,  conveyed  to  New  York 
the  contribution  of  Berkshire,  to  the  Soldiers'  Thanksgiving  Din 
ner  at  Bedloe's  Island.  Among  the  abundance  of  good  things 
thus  liberally  collected  for  this  dinner,  were  more  than  a  half  ton 


672 

of  poultry,  and  four  bushels  of  real  Yankee  doughnuts,  besides 
cakes,  fruit  and  vegetables,  in  enormous  quantities.  These  she 
greatly  enjoyed  helping  to  distribute. 

In  the  fall  of  1864,  she  had  a  similar  pleasure  in  contributing 
to  the  dinner  at  David's  Island,  where  several  thousand  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers,  (both  white  and  colored)  returned  prisoners, 
and  freedmen  were  gathered,  fourteen  boxes  and  parcels  of  similar 
luxuries.  Various  accidents  combined  to  prevent  her  arrival  in 
time,  and  her  good  things  were  consequently  in  part  too  late  for 
the  dinner.  There  was  fortunately  a  plenty  beside,  and  the  Berk 
shire's  contribution  was  reserved  for  the  feast  of  welcome  to  the 
poor  starved  wrecks  so  soon  to  come  home  from  the  privations 
and  cruelties  of  Andersonville. 

Mrs.  Fenn  however  enjoyed  the  occasion  to  the  fullest,  and  was 
welcomed  with  such  joy  and  gratitude,  by  the  men  who  had  so 
often  shared  the  good  things  she  had  sent  to  the  hospitals,  as  more 
than  repaid  her  for  all  her  labors  and  sacrifices.  Many  thousands 
of  all  classes,  sick  and  wounded  convalescents,  and  returned 
prisoners,  white  and  colored  troops,  were  then  gathered  there, 
and  on  the  last  day  of  her  stay,  Mrs.  Fenn  enjoyed  the  pleasure 
of  personally  distributing  to  each  individual  in  that  vast  collec 
tion  of  suffering  men,  some  little  gift  from  the  stores  she  had 
brought.  Fruit,  (apples,  or  some  foreign  fruit),  cakes,  a  delicacy 
for  the  failing  appetite,  stores  of  stationery,  contributed  by  the 
liberal  Berkshire  manufacturers,  papers,  books — to  each  one  some 
token  of  individual  remembrance.  And,  with  great  gusto,  she 
still  tells  how  she  came  at  last  to  the  vast  pavilion  where  the 
colored  troops  were  stationed,  and  how  the  dusky  faces  bright 
ened,  and  the  dark  eyes  swam  in  tears,  and  the  white  teeth 
gleamed  in  smiles,  half  joyful,  half  sad ;  and  how,  after  bestow 
ing  upon  each  some  token  of  her  visit,  and  receiving  their  enthu 
siastic  thanks,  she  paused  at  the  door,  before  bidding  them  fare 
well,  and  asked  if  any  were  there  who  were  sorry  for  their  free 
dom,  regretted  the  price  they  had  paid  for  it,  or  wished  to  return 


MR9.  C.  T.  FENN.  673 

to  their  old  masters,  they  should  say — Aye.  "  The  gentleman 
from  Africa,"  perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  had  a  vote. 
He  realized  the  solemnity  of  the  moment.  A  dead  silence  fell 
upon  the  crowd,  and  no  voice  was  lifted  in  that  important  affir 
mative.  "  Very  well,  boys,"  again  spoke  the  clear,  kind  voice 
of  Mrs.  Fenn.  "  Each  of  you  who  is  glad  to  be  free,  proud  to 
be  a  free  soldier  of  his  country,  and  ready  for  the  struggles  which 
freedom  entails,  Avill  please  to  say  Aye."  Instantly,  such  a  shout 
arose,  as  startled  the  sick  in  their  beds  in  the  farthest  pavilion. 
No  voice  was  silent.  An  irrepressible,  exultant,  enthusiastic  cry 
answered  her  appeal,  and  told  how  the  black  man  appreciated  the 
treasure  won  by  such  blood  and  suffering. 

As  has  been  said  before,  the  personal  labors  of  Mrs.  Fenn  were 
unintermitted  as  long  as  a  sick  or  wounded  soldier  remained  in 
any  hospital.  After  all  the  hospitals  in  the  neighborhood  of  New 
York  were  closed,  except  that  of  David's  Island,  months  after 
the  suspension  of  hostilities,  she  continued  to  be  the  medium  of 
sending  to  the  men  there  the  contributions  of  Berkshire,  and  the 
supplies  her  appeals  drew  from  various  sources. 

The  United  Societies  of  Shakers,  at  Lebanon  and  Hauck,  fur 
nished  her  with  many  supplies — excellent  fruit,  cheese,  eatables 
of  various  kinds,  all  of  the  best,  cloth,  linen  new  and  old,  towels, 
napkins,  etc.,  etc.,  all  of  their  own  manufacture  and  freely  offered. 
The  Shakers  are  no  less  decided  than  the  Quakers  in  their  testi 
mony  against  war,  but  they  are  also,  as  a  body,  patriotic  to  a. 
degree,  and  full  of  kindly  feelings  which  thus  found  expression. 

At  one  time  Mrs.  Fenn  with  a  desire  of  saving  for  its  legiti 
mate  purpose  even  the  small  sum  paid  for  rent,  gave  up  the 
rooms  she  had  hired,  and  for  more  than  a  year  devoted  the  best 
parlor  of  her  own  handsome  residence  to  the  reception  of  goods 
contributed  for  the  soldiers.  Thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  sup 
plies  were  there  received  and  packed  by  her  own  hands. 

Among  other  things  accomplished  by  this  indefatigable  woman 
was  the  making  of  nearly  one  hundred  gallons  of  blackberry 

85 


674 

cordial.  Most  of  the  bandages  sent  from  Pittsfield  were  made 
by  her,  and  so  nicely,  that  Mrs.  Fenn's  bandages  became 
famed  throughout  the  army  and  hospitals.  In  all,  they  amounted 
to  many  thousand  yards.  One  box  which  accompanied  Burn- 
side's  expedition,  alone  contained  over  four  thousand  yards  of 
bandages,  which  she  had  prepared. 

Though  the  bounties  she  so  lavishly  sent  forth  were  in  a  very 
large  measure  devoted  to  the  hospitals  in  the  neighborhood  of 
New  York,  to  the  Soldiers7  Rest  in  Howard  Street;  New  Eng 
land  Rooms,  Central  Park,  Ladies'  Home  and  Park  Barracks, 
they  were  still  diffused  to  all  parts  of  the  land.  The  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  and  of  the  Southwest,  and  scores  of  scattered  com 
panies  and  regiments  shared  them.  The  Massachusetts  Regi 
ments,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  were  always  remembered  with 
the  tenderest  care,  and  especially  was  the  gallant  Forty-ninth, 
raised  almost  entirely  in  Berkshire,  the  object  of  that  helpful 
solicitude  which  never  wearied  of  well-doing. 

Almost  decimated  by  disease  in  the  deadly  bayous  of  the 
Southwest,  and  in  the  fearful  conflicts  at  Port  Hudson  and 
its  neighborhood  in  the  summer  of  1863,  the  remnant  at  length 
returned  to  Berkshire  to  receive  such  a  welcome  and  ovation  at 
Pittsfield,  on  the  22d  of  August  of  that  year,  as  has  seldom  been 
extended  to  our  honored  soldiery.  About  fifty  of  these  men 
were  at  once  taken  to  the  hospital,  and  long  lay  ill,  the  constant 
recipients  of  unwearied  kind  attentions  from  Mrs.  Fenn  and  her 
coadjutors. 

Much  as  we  have  said  of  the  excellent  and  extensive  work  per 
formed  by  this  most  admirable  woman,  space  fails  us  for  the 
detail  of  the  half.  Her  work  was  so  various,  and  so  thoroughly 
good  in  every  department,  both  head  and  hands  were  so  entirely 
at  the  service  of  these  her  suffering  countrymen,  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  tell  the  half.  The  close  of  the  war  has  brought  her 
a  measure  of  repose,  but  for  such  as  she  there  is  no  rest  while 
human  beings  suffer  and  their  cry  ascends  for  help.  Her  chari- 


MRS.  C.  T.  FEXN.  675 

ties  are  large  to  the  freedmen,  and  the  refugees  who  at  the  present 
time  so  greatly  need  aid.  She  is  also  lending  her  efforts  to  the 
collection  of  the  funds  needful  for  the  erection  of  a  monument  to 
her  fallen  soldiers  which  Pittsfield  proposes  to  raise  at  an  expense 
of  several  thousands  of  dollars  contributed  by  the  people. 

At  sixty-eight,  Mrs.  Fenn  is  still  erect,  active,  and  with  a 
countenance  beaming  with  animation  and  benevolence,  bids  fair 
to  realize  the  wish  which  at  sight  of  her  involuntarily  springs  to 
all  lips  that  her  life  may  long  be  spared  to  the  good  words  and 
works  to  which  it  is  devoted.  She  has  been  the  recipient  of 
several  handsome  testimonials  from  her  towns-people  and  from 
abroad,  and  many  a  token  of  the  soldier's  gratitude,  inexpensive, 
but  most  valuable,  in  view  of  the  laborious  and  painstaking  care 
which  formed  them,  has  reached  her  hands  and  is  placed  with 
worthy  pride  among  her  treasures. 


MRS.   JAMES    HARLAN. 


HERE  have  been  numerous  instances  of  ladies  of  high 
social  position,  the  wives  and  daughters  of  generals  of 
high  rank,  and  commanding  large  bodies  of  troops,  of 
Governors  of  States,  of  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  Congress,  of  Members  of  the  Cabinet,  or  of  other  Government 
officials,  who  have  felt  it  an  honor  to  minister  to  the  defenders  of 
their  country,  or  to  aid  in  such  ways  as  were  possible  the  blessed 
work  of  relieving  pain  and  suffering,  of  raising  up  the  down 
trodden,  or  of  bringing  the  light  of  hope  and  intelligence  back  to 
the  dull  and  glazed  eyes  of  the  loyal  whites  who  escaped  from 
cruel  oppression  and  outrages  worse  than  death  to  the  Union 
lines.  Among  these  will  be  readily  recalled,  Mrs.  John  C.  Fre 
mont,  Mrs.  General  W.  H.  L.  Wallace,  Mrs.  Harvey,  Mrs. 
Governor  Salomon,  Mrs.  William  H.  Seward,  Mrs.  Ira  Harris, 
Mrs.  Samuel  C.  Pomeroy,  Mrs.  L.  E.  Chittenden,  Mrs.  John  S. 
Phelps,  and,  though  last  named,  by  no  means  the  least  efficient, 
Mrs.  James  Harlan. 

Mrs.  Harlan  is  a  native  of  Kentucky,  but  removed  to  Indiana 
in  her  childhood.  Here  she  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Harlan 
to  whom  she  was  married  in  1845  or  1846.  In  the  rapid  suc 
cession  of  positions  of  honor  and  trust  to  which  her  husband  was 
elevated  by  the  people,  as  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
President  of  Mount  Pleasant  University,  United  States  Senator, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  and  again  United  States  Senator,  Mrs. 
Harlan  proved  herself  worthy  of  a  position  by  his  side.  Possess- 

C76 


MRS.  JAMES    HARLAN.  677 

ing  great  energy  and  resolution  and  a  highly  cultivated  intellect, 
she  acquitted  herself  at  all  times  with  dignity  and  honor.  When 
the  nominal  became  the  actual  war,  and  great  battles  were  fought, 
she  was  among  the  first  to  go  to  the  bloody  battle-fields  and 
minister  to  the  wounded  and  dying.  After  the  battle  of  Shiloh 
she  was  one  of  the  first  ladies  on  the  field,  and  her  labors  were 
incessant  and  accomplished  great  good.  Her  position  as  the  wife 
of  a  distinguished  senator,  and  her  energy  and  decision  of  cha 
racter  were  used  with  effect,  and  she  was  enabled  to  wring  from 
General  Halleck  the  permission  previously  refused  to  all  appli 
cants  to  remove  the  wounded  to  hospitals  at  Mound  City,  St. 
Louis,  Keokuk,  and  elsewhere,  where  their  chances  of  recovery 
were  greatly  improved.  At  Washington  where  she  subsequently 
spent  much  of  her  time,  she  devoted  her  energies  first  to  caring 
for  the  Iowa  soldiers,  but  she  soon  came  to  feel  that  all  Union 
soldiers  were  her  brothers,  and  she  ministered  to  all  without  dis 
tinction  of  State  lines.  She  lost  during  the  war  a  lovely  and 
beautiful  daughter,  Jessie  Fremont  Harlan,  and  the  love  which 
had  been  bestowed  upon  her  overflowed  after  her  death  upon  the 
soldiers  of  the  Union.  Her  faithfulness,  energy,  and  continuous 
labors  in  behalf  of  the  soldiers,  her  earnestness  in  protecting  them 
from  wrongs  or  oppression,  her  quick  sympathy  with  their  sor 
rows,  and  her  zealous  efforts  for  their  spiritual  good,  will  be 
remembered  by  many  thousands  of  them  all  over  the  country. 
Mrs.  Harlan  early  advocated  the  mingling  of  religious  effort  with 
the  distribution  of  physical  comforts  among  the  soldiers,  and 
though  she  herself  would  probably  shrink  from  claiming,  as  some 
of  her  enthusiastic  friends  have  done  for  her,  the  honor  of  inau 
gurating  the  movement  which  culminated  in  the  organization  of 
the  Christian  Commission,  its  plan  of  operations  was  certainly 
fully  in  accordance  with  her  own,  and  she  was  from  the  beginning 
one  of  its  most  active  and  efficient  supporters. 

Mrs.  Harlan  was  accompanied  in  many  of  her  visits  to  the 
armv  bv  Mrs.  Almira  Fales,  of  whom  we  have  elsewhere  given 


678 

an  account,  and  whose  husband  having  been  the  first  State 
Auditor  of  Iowa,  was  drawn  to  her  not  only  by  the  bond  of  a 
common  benevolence,  but  by  State  ties,  which  led  them  both  to 
seek  the  good  of  the  soldiers  in  whom  both  felt  so  deep  an  inte 
rest.  Mrs.  Harlan  continued  her  labors  for  the  soldiers  till  after 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  has  been  active  since  that  time  in  secur 
ing  for  them  their  rights.  Her  health  was  much  impaired  by 
her  protracted  efforts  in  their  behalf,  and  during  the  year  1866 
she  was  much  of  the  time  an  invalid. 


NEW  ENGLAND   SOLDIERS'  RELIEF 
ASSOCIATION. 


HE  "  New  England  Society,"  of  New  York  City,  is  an 
Association  of  long  standing,  for  charitable  and  social 
purposes,  and  is  composed  of  natives  of  New  England, 
residing  in  New  York,  and  its  vicinity.  Soon  after 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  this  society  became  the  nucleus  of  a 
wider  and  less  formal  organization — the  Sons  of  New  England. 
In  April,  1862,  these  gentlemen  formed  the  New  England  Sol 
diers7  Relief  Association,  whose  object  was  declared  to  be  "  to 
aid  and  care  for  all  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  passing  through 
the  city,  of  New  York,  on  their  way  to  or  from  the  war." 
On  the  8th  of  April,  its  "  Home,"  a  building  well  adapted  to  its 
purposes,  was  opened  at  No.  198  Broadway,  and  Dr.  Everett 
Herrick,  was  appointed  its  resident  Surgeon,  and  Mrs.  E.  A. 
Russell,  its  Matron.  The  Home  was  a  hospital  as  well  as  a  home, 
and  in  its  second  floor  accommodated  a  very  considerable  number 
of  patients.  Its  Matron  was  faithful  and  indefatigable  in  her 
performance  of  her  duties,  and  in  the  three  years  of  her  service 
had  under  her  care  more  than  sixty  thousand  soldiers,  many  of 
them  wounded  or  disabled. 

A  Women's  Auxiliary  Committee  was  formed  soon  after  the 
establishment  of  the  Association,  consisting  of  thirty  ladies  who 
took  their  turn  of  service  as  nurses  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
through  the  year,  and  provided  for  them  additional  luxuries  and 
delicacies  to  those  furnished  by  the  Association  and  the  Govern- 

679 


680  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  AVAR. 

ment  rations.  These  ladies,  the  wives  and  daughters  of  eminent 
merchants,  clergymen,  physicians,  and  lawyers  of  the  city,  per 
formed  their  work  with  great  faithfulness  and  assiduity.  The 
care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  men  during  the  night,  devolved 
upon  the  Night  Watchers7  Association,  a  voluntary  committee  of 
young  men  of  the  highest  character,  who  during  a  period  of  three 
years  never  failed  to  supply  the  needful  watchers  for  the  invalid 
soldiers. 

The  ladies  in  addition  to  their  services  as  nurses,  took  part  in 
a  choir  for  the  Sabbath  services,  in  which  all  the  exercises  were 
by  volunteers. 

The  Soldiers'  Depot  in  Howard  Street,  New  York,  organized 
in  1863,  was  an  institution  of  somewhat  similar  character  to  the 
New  England  Soldiers'  Relief,  though  it  recognized  a  primary 
responsibility  to  New  York  soldiers.  It  was  founded  and  sus 
tained  mainly  by  State  appropriations,  and  a  very  earnest  and 
faithful  association  of  ladies,  here  also  bestowed  their  care  and 
services  upon  the  soldiers.  Mrs.  G.  T.  M.  Davis,  was  active  and 
prominent  in  this  organization. 


PART  IV. 


LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  FOR  SERVICES  AMONG  THE  FREEDMEN 
AND  REFUGEES. 


MRS.  FRANCES  D.  GAGE. 


N  the  12th  of  October,  1808,  was  born  in  the  town 
ship  of  Union,  Washington  County,  Ohio,  Frances 
Dana  Barker.  Her  father  had,  twenty  years  before 
that  time,  gone  a  pioneer  to  the  Western  wilds.  His 
name  was  Joseph  Barker,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire.  Her 
mother  was  Elizabeth  Dana,  of  Massachusetts,  and  her  maternal 
grandmother  was  Mary  Bancroft.  She  was  thus  allied  on  the 
maternal  side  to  the  well-known  Massachusetts  families  of  Dana 
and  Bancroft. 

During  her  childhood,  schools  were  scarce  in  Ohio,  and  in  the 
small  country  places  inferior.  A  log-cabin  in  the  woods  was  the 
Seminary  where  Frances  Barker  acquired  the  rudiments  of  edu 
cation.  The  wolf's  howl,  the  panther's  cry,  the  hiss  of  the  cop 
perhead,  often  filled  her  young  heart  with  terror. 

Her  father  was  a  farmer,  and  the  stirring  life  of  a  farmer's 
daughter  in  a  new  country,  fell  to  her  lot.  To  spin  the  garments 
she  wore,  to  make  cheese  and  butter,  were  parts  of  her  education, 
while  to  lend  a  hand  at  out-door  labor,  perhaps  helped  her  to  ac 
quire  that  vigor  of  body  and  brain  for  which  she  has  since  been 
distinguished. 

She  made  frequent  visits  to  her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Mary  Ban 
croft  Dana,  whose  home  was  at  Belpre,  Ohio,  upon  the  Ohio 
river,  only  one  mile  from  Parkersburg,  Virginia,  and  opposite 
Blennerhasset's  Island.  Mrs.  Dana,  was  even  then  a  radical  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  and  Frances  learned  from  her  to  hate  the 

683 


684 

word,  and  all  it  represented.  She  never  was  on  the  side  of  the 
oppressor,  and  was  frequently  laughed  at  in  childhood,  for  her 
sympathy  with  the  poor  fugitives  from  slavery,  who  often  found 
their  way  to  the  neighborhood  in  which  she  lived,  seeking  kind 
ness  and  charity  of  the  people. 

It  had  not  then  become  a  crime  to  give  a  crust  of  bread,  or  a 
cup  of  milk  to  the  "  fugitive  from  labor/'  and  Mrs.  Barker,  a 
noble,  true-thinking  woman,  often  sent  her  daughter  on  errands 
of  mercy  to  the  neighboring  cabins,  where  the  poor  creatures 
sought  shelter,  and  would  tarry  a  few  days,  often  to  be  caught 
and  sent  back  to  their  masters.  Thus  she  early  became  familiar 
ized  with  their  sufferings,  and  their  wants. 

At  the  age  of  twenty,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1829,  Frances 
Barker  became  the  wife  of  James  L.  Gage,  a  lawyer  of  McCon- 
nellsville,  Ohio,  a  good  and  noble  man,  whose  hatred  of  the 
system  of  slavery  in  the  South,  was  surpassed  only  by  that  of 
the  great  apostle  of  anti-slavery,  Garrison,  himself.  Moral  in 
tegrity,  and  unflinching  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  were 
leading  traits  of  his  character. 

A  family  of  eight  children  engrossed  much  of  their  attention 
for  many  years,  but  still  they  found  time  to  wage  moral  warfare 
with  the  stupendous  wrong  that  surrounded  them,  and  bore  down 
their  friends  and  neighbors  beneath  the  leaden  weight  of  its 
prejudice  and  injustice. 

Mrs.  Gage  records  that  "it  never  seemed  to  her  to  require  any 
sacrifice  to  resist  the  popular  will  upon  the  subjects  of  freedom 
for  the  slave,  temperance,  or  even  the  rights  of  woman."  They 
were  all  so  manifestly  right,  in  her  opinion,  that  she  could  not 
but  take  her  stand  as  their  advocates,  and  it  was  far  easier  for 
her  to  maintain  them  than  to  yield  one  iota  of  her  conscientious 
views. 

Thus  she  always  found  herself  in  a  minority,  through  all  the 
struggling  years  between  1832  and  1865.  She  had  once  an 
engagement  with  the  editor  of  a  "State  Journal  "  to  write  weekly 


MRS.  FRANCES    D.  GAGE.  685 

for  his  columns  during  a  year.  This,  at  that  time  seemed  to  her 
a  great  achievement.  But  a  few  plain  words  from  her  upon  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  brought  a  note  saying  her  services  were  no 
longer  wanted;  "He  would  not/'  the  editor  wrote,  "publish  sen 
timents  in  his  Journal,  which,  if  carried  out,  would  strike  at  the 
foundations  of  all  law,  order,  and  government,"  and  added  much 
good  advice.  Her  reply  was  prompt: 

"  Yours  of is  at  hand.  Thanking  you  for  your  unasked  counsel,  I  cheer 
fully  retire  from  your  columns.  " Respectfully  yours, 

"F.  D.  GAGE." 

She  has  lived  to  see  that  editor  change  many  of  his  views,  and 
approach  her  standard. 

The  great  moral  struggle  of  the  thirty  years  preceding  the  war, 
in  her  opinion,  required  for  its  continuance  far  more  heroism  than 
that  which  marshalled  our  hosts  along  the  Potomac,  prompted 
Sheridan's  raids,  or  Sherman's  triumphant  "  march  to  the  sea." 

In  all  her  warfare  against  existing  wrong,  that  which  she 
waged  for  the  liberties  of  her  own  sex  subjected  her  to  the  most 
trying  persecution,  insult  and  neglect.  In  the  region  of  Ohio 
wThere  she  then  resided,  she  stood  almost  alone,  but  she  was  never 
inclined  to  yield.  Probably,  unknown  to  herself,  this  very  disci 
pline  was  preparing  her  for  the  events  of  the  future,  and  its 
supreme  tests  of  her  principles. 

A  member  of  Congress  once  called  to  urge  her  to  persuade  her 
husband  to  yield  a  point  of  principle  (which  he  said  if  adhered 
to  would  prove  the  political  ruin  of  Mr.  Gage)  holding  out  the 
bribe  of  a  seat  in  Congress,  if  he  would  stand  by  the  old  Whig 
party  in  some  of  its  tergiversations,  and  insisting  that  if  he  per 
sisted  in  doing  as  he  had  threatened,  he  would  soon  find  himself 
standing  alone.  She  promised  the  gentleman  that  she  would 
repeat  to  her  husband  what  he  had  said,  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
gone  seized  her  pencil  and  wrote  the  following  impromptu,  which 
serves  well  to  illustrate  her  firm  persistence  in  any  course  she 
believes  right,  as  well  as  the  principle  that  animates  her. 


G86  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


DARE  TO  STAND  ALONE. 

"Be  bold,  be  firm,  be  strong,  be  true, 

And  dare  to  stand  alone. 
Strike  for  the  Eight  whate'er  ye  do, 
Though  helpers  there  be  none. 

"Oh  !  bend  not  to  the  swelling  surge 

Of  popular  crime  and  wrong. 

'Twill  bear  thee  on  to  Ruin's  verge 

With  current  wild  and  strong. 

"Strike  for  the  Eight,  tho'  falsehood  rail 

And  proud  lips  coldly  sneer. 

A  poisoned  arrow  cannot  wound 

A  conscience  pure  and  clear. 

"Strike  for  the  Eight,  and  with  clean  hands 

Exalt  the  truth  on  high, 
Thoul't  find  warm  sympathizing  hearts 
Among  the  passers  by, 

"Those  who  have  thought,  and  felt,  and  prayed, 

Yet  could  not  singly  dare 
The  battle's  brunt ;  but  by  thy  side 
Will  every  danger  share. 

"Strike  for  the  Eight.     Uphold  the  Truth. 

Thou'lt  find  an  answering  tone 
In  honest  hearts,  and  soon  no  more 
Be  left  to  stand  alone." 

She  handed  this  poem  to  the  gentleman  with  whom  she  had 
been  conversing,  and  he  afterwards  told  her  that  it  decided  him 
to  give  up  all  for  principle.  He  led  off  in  his  district  in  what 
was  soon  known  as  the  Free  Soil  party,  the  root  of  the  present 
triumphant  Republican  party. 

In  1853  the  family  of  Mrs.  Gage  removed  to  St.  Louis.  Those 
who  fought  the  anti-slavery  battle  in  Massachusetts  have  little 
realization  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  of  maintaining  similar 
sentiments  in  a  slaveholding  community,  and  a  slave  State.  Mrs. 
Gage  spoke  boldly  whenever  her  thought  seemed  to  be  'required, 


MRS.  FRANCES    D.  GAGE.  687 

and  soon  found  herself  branded  as  an  "abolitionist"  with  every 
adjective  appended  that  could  tend  to  destroy  public  confidence. 

While  Colonel  Chambers,  the  former  accomplished  editor  of 
the  Missouri  Republican  lived,  she  wrote  for  his  columns,  and  at 
one  time  summing  up  the  resources  of  that  great  State,  she  ad 
vanced  this  opinion :  "  Strike  from  your  statute  books  the  laws 
that  give  man  the  right  to  hold  property  in  man,  and  ten  years 
from  this  time  Missouri  will  lead  its  sister  State  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  Mississippi." 

After  the  publication  of  this  article,  Colonel  Chambers  was 
waited  upon  and  remonstrated  with  by  some  old  slaveholders,  for 
allowing  an  abolitionist  to  write  for  his  journal.  "Such  senti 
ments/'  they  said,  "  would  destroy  the  Union."  "  If  your  Union," 
replied  he,  "is  based  upon  a  foundation  so  unstable  that  one 
woman's  breath  can  blow  it  down,  in  God's  name  let  her  do  it. 
She  shall  say  her  say  while  I  live  and  edit  this  paper." 

He  died  soon  after,  and  Mrs.  Gage  was  at  once  excluded  from 
its  columns,  by  the  succeeding  editors,  refused  payment  for  past 
labors,  or  a  return  of  her  manuscripts. 

The  Missouri  Democrat  soon  after  hoisted  the  flag  of  Emanci 
pation,  under  the  leadership  of  Frank  Blair.  She  became  one  of 
its  correspondents,  and  for  several  years  continued  to  supply  its 
columns  with  an  article  once  or  twice  a  week.  Appearing  in 
1858  upon  the  platform  of  the  Boston  Anti-Slavery  Society,  she 
was  at  once  excluded  as  dangerous  to  the  interests  of  the  party 
which  the  paper  represented. 

During  all  the  years  of  her  life  in  Missouri  Mrs.  Gage  fre 
quently  received  letters  threatening  her  with  personal  violence, 
or  the  destruction  of  her  husband's  property.  Slaves  came  to  her 
for  aid,  and  were  sent  to  entrap  her,  but  she  succeeded  in  evad 
ing  all  positive  difficulty  and  trial. 

During  the  Kansas  war  she  labored  diligently  with  pen,  tongue, 
and  hands,  for  those  who  so  valiantly  fought  the  oppressor  in 
that  hour  of  trial.  She  expected  to  be  waylaid  and  to  be  made 


688 

to  suffer  for  her  temerity,  and  perhaps  she  did;  for  about  the 
close  of  that  perilous  year  three  disastrous  fires,  supposed  to  be 
the  work  of  incendiaries,  greatly  reduced  the  family  resources. 

This  portion  of  the  life  of  Mrs.  Gage  has  been  dwelt  upon  at 
considerable  length,  because  she  regards  the  struggle  then  made 
against  the  wickedness,  prejudice,  and  bigotry  of  mankind,  as  the 
main  bravery  of  her  life,  and  that  if  there  has  been  heroism  in 
any  part  of  it,  it  was  then  displayed.  "If  as  a  woman/'  she  says, 
"to  take  the  platform  amidst  hissing,  and  scorn,  and  newspaper 
vituperations,  to  maintain  the  right  of  woman  to  the  legitimate 
use  of  all  the  talents  God  invests  her  with;  to  maintain  the 
rights  of  the  slave  in  the  very  ears  of  the  masters;  to  hurl  ana 
themas  at  intemperance  in  the  very  camps  of  the  dram-sellers; 
if  to  continue  for  forty  years,  in  spite  of  all  opposing  forces,  to 
press  the  triune  cause  persistently,  consistently,  and  unflinchingly, 
entitles  me  to  a  humble  place  among  those  noble  ones  who  have 
gone  about  doing  good,  you  can  put  me  in  that  place  as  it  suits 
you." 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  by  reason  of  her  husband's 
failure  in  business  at  St.  Louis,  and  his  ill-health,  Mrs.  Gage 
found  herself  filling  the  post  of  Editor  of  the  Home  Department 
of  an  Agricultural  paper  in  Columbus,  Ohio.  The  call  for  help 
for  the  soldiers,  was  responded  to  by  all  loyal  women.  Mrs. 
Gage  did  what  she  could  with  her  hands,  but  found  them  tied  by 
unavoidable  labors.  She  offered  tongue  and  pen,  and  found  them 
much  more  efficient  agents.  The  war  destroyed  the  circulation 
of  the  paper,  and  she  was  set  free. 

The  cry  of  suffering  from  the  Freedmen  reached  her,  and  God 
seemed  to  speak  to  her  heart,  telling  her  that  there  was  her  mis 
sion. 

In  the  autumn  of  1862,  without  appointment,  or  salary,  with 
only  faith  in  God  that  she  should  be  sustained,  and  with  a  firm 
reliance  on  the  invincible  principles  of  Truth  and  Justice,  in  the 


MRS.  FRANCES   D.  GAGE.  689 

hope  of  doing  good,  she  left  Ohio,  and  proceeded  directly  to  Port 
Royal. 

She  remained  among  the  freedmen  of  Beaufort,  Paris,  Fer- 
uaudina,  and  other  points,  thirteen  months;  administering  also 
to  the  soldiers,  as  often  as  circumstances  gave  opportunity.  Her 
own  four  boys  were  in  the  Union  army,  and  this,  if  no  more, 
would  have  given  every  "  boy  in  blue/7  a  claim  upon  her  sym 
pathy  and  kindness. 

In  the  fall  of  1863,  Mrs.  Gage  returned  North,  and  with  head 
and  heart  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  claims  of  the  great  mis 
sion  upon  which  she  had  entered,  she  commenced  a  lecturing  tour, 
speaking  to  the  people  of  her  "  experiences  among  the  Freedmen." 
To  show  them  as  they  were,  to  give  a  truthful  portrayal  of  Slav 
ery,  its  barbarity  and  heinousness,  its  demoralization  of  master 
and  man,  its  incompatibility  wTith  all  things  beautiful  or  good, 
its  defiance  of  God  and  his  truth ;  and  to  show  the  intensely  hu 
man  character  of  the  slave,  who,  through  this  fearful  ordeal  of 
two  hundred  years,  had  preserved  so  much  goodness,  patient  hope, 
unwavering  trust  in  Jesus,  faith  in  God,  such  desire  for  know 
ledge  and  capability  of  self-support — such  she  felt  to  be  her  mis 
sion,  and  as  such  she  performed  it !  She  believed  that  by  remov 
ing  prejudice,  and  inspiring  confidence  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  and  by  striving  to  unite  the  people  on  this  great 
issue,  she  could  do  more  than  in  any  other  way  toward  ending 
the  Avar,  and  relieving  the  soldier — such  was  the  aim  of  her  lec 
tures,  while  she  never  omitted  to  move  the  hearts  of  the  audience 
toward  those  so  nobly  defending  the  Union  and  the  Government. 

Thus,  in  all  the  inclement  winter  weather,  through  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  York,  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Missouri,  she  pursued  her 
labors  of  love,  never  omitting  an  evening  when  she  could  get  an 
audience  to  address,  speaking  for  Soldiers'  Aid  Societies,  and 
giving  the  proceeds  to  those  who  worked  only  for  the  soldier, 
— then  for  Freedmen's  Associations.  She  worked  without  fee  or 
reward,  asking  only  of  those  who  were  willing,  to  give  enough  to 

87 


690 

defray  her  expenses — for  herself — thankful  if  she  received,  cheer 
ful  if  she  did  not. 

Following  up  this  course  till  the  summer  days  made  lecturing 
seem  impossible,  she  started  from  St.  Louis  down  the  Mississippi, 
to  Memphis,  Yicksburg,  and  Natchez.  On  this  trip  she  went  as  an 
unsalaried  agent  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission — receiving 
only  her  expenses,  and  the  goods  and  provisions  wherewith  to 
relieve  the  want  and  misery  she  met  among  our  suffering  men. 

A  few  months'  experience  among  the  Union  Refugees,  and  un 
protected  fugitives,  or  unprotected  Freedmen,  convinced  her  that 
her  best  work  for  all  was  in  the  lecturing  field,  in  rousing  the 
hearts  of  the  multitude  to  good  deeds. 

She  had  but  one  weak  pair  of  hands,  while  her  voice  might  set 
a  hundred,  nay,  a  thousand  pairs  in  motion,  and  believing  that 
we  err  if  we  fail  to  use  our  best  powers  for  life's  best  uses,  she 
again,  after  a  few  months  with  the  soldiers  and  other  sufferers, 
entered  the  lecturing  field  in  the  West,  speaking  almost  nightly. 

In  the  month  of  September,  she  was  overturned  in  a  carriage 
at  Galesburg,  Illinois.  Some  bones  were  broken,  and  she  was 
otherwise  so  injured  as  to  be  entirely  crippled  for  that  year.  She 
has  since  been  able  to  labor  only  occasionally,  and  in  great  weak 
ness  for  the  cause.  This  expression  she  uses  for  all  struggle 
against  wrong.  "Temperance,  Freedom,  Justice  to  the  negro, 
Justice  to  woman,"  she  says,  "  are  but  parts  of  one  great  whole, 
one  mighty  temple  whose  maker  and  builder  is  God." 

Through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  past ;  through  all  its  years 
of  waiting,  her  faith  in  Him  who  led,  and  held,  and  comforted, 
has  never  wavered,  and  to  Him  alone  does  she  ascribe  the  Glory 
of  our  National  Redemption. 


MRS.   LUCY    GAYLORD    POMEROY. 


1803,  some  families  from  Bristol  and  Meriden,  Con 
necticut,  removed  to  the  wilderness  of  New  York,  and 
settled  in  what  is  now  Otisco,  Onondaga  County. 
Among  these  were  Chauncey  Gaylord,  a  sturdy,  ath 
letic  young  man,  just  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  "a 
little,  quiet,  black-eyed  girl,  with  a  sunny,  thoughtful  face,  only 
eleven  years  old."  Her  name  was  Dema  Cowles.  So  the  young 
man  and  the  little  girl  became  acquaintances,  and  friends,  and  in 
after  years  lovers.  In  1817  they  were  married.  Their  first 
home  was  of  logs,  containing  one  room,  with  a  rude  loft  above, 
and  an  excavation  beneath  for  a  cellar. 

In  this  humble  abode  was  born  Lucy  Ann  Gaylord,  the  sub 
ject  of  this  sketch,  who  afterwards  became  the  wife  of  Samuel 
C.  Pomeroy,  United  States  Senator  from  Kansas. 

Plain  and  humble  as  was  this  home,  it  was  a  consecrated  one, 
where  God  was  worshipped,  and  the  purest  religious  lessons 
taught.  Mrs.  Gaylord  was  a  woman  of  remarkable  strength  of 
character  and  principles,  one  who  carried  her  religion  into  all  the 
acts  of  daily  life,  and  taught  by  a  consistent  example,  no  less 
than  by  a  wise  precept.  Her  mother  had  early  been  widowed, 
and  had  afterwards  married  Mr.  Eliakim  Clark,  from  Massachu 
setts,  and  had  become  the  mother  of  the  well-known  twin-broth 
ers,  Lewis  Gaylord,  and  Willis  Gaylord  Clark,  destined  to 
develope  into  scholars  and  poets,  and  to  leave  their  mark  upon 
the  literature  of  America.  She  had  been  entrusted  with  the  care 

691 


692 

of  these  beautiful  and  noble  boys  for  some  years,  and  was  already 
experienced  in  duties  of  that  kind,  before  children  of  her  own 
were  given  her.  Doubtless  to  her  high  order  of  intellect,  refined 
taste,  amiable  disposition,  and  sterling  good  sense,  all  the  children 
who  shared  her  care  are  indebted  to  a  great  extent  for  the  noble 
qualities  they  possess. 

Other  children  succeeded  Lucy,  and  as  the  elder  sister,  she 
shared,  in  their  primitive  mode  of  life,  her  mother's  cares  and 
duties.  Her  character  developed  and  expanded,  and  she  grew  in 
mental  grace  as  in  stature,  loving  all  beautiful  things  and  noble 
thoughts,  and  early  making  a  profession  of  religion. 

By  this  time  the  family  occupied  a  handsome  rural  homestead, 
where  neatness,  order,  regularity,  industry  and  kindness  reigned, 
and  where  a  liberal  hospitality  was  always  practiced.  Here 
gathered  all  the  large  group  of  family  relatives,  here  the  aged 
grandmother  Clark  lived,  and  hither  came  her  gifted  twin  sons, 
from  time  to  time,  as  to  their  home.  The  most  beautiful  scenery 
surrounded  this  homestead;  peace,  order,  intelligence,  truth  and 
godliness  abounded  there,  and  amidst  such  influences  Lucy  Gay- 
lord  had  the  training  which  led  to  the  future  usefulness  of  her 
life.  Even  in  her  youth  she  was  the  friend  and  safe  counsellor 
of  her  brothers,  as  in  her  maturer  years  she  was  of  her  gifted 
husband. 

At  eighteen  she  made  a  public  profession  of  religion,  and  soon 
after  the  thought  of  consecrating  herself  to  the  missionary  work 
took  possession  of  her  mind.  To  this  end  she  labored  and 
studied  for  several  years,  steadfastly  educating  herself  for  a 
vocation  to  which  she  believed  herself  called,  though  often 
afflicted  with  serious  doubts  as  to  whether  she,  being  an  only 
daughter,  could  leave  her  parents. 

In  early  life  she  became  an  earnest  and  efficient  teacher  in 
Sunday-schools,  her  intellectual  pursuits  furnishing  her  with 
ever  fresh  means  of  rendering  her  instruction  interesting  and 
useful  to  her  classes.  She  undoubtedly  at  the  first  considered 


MES.  LUCY   GAYLORD   POMEEOY.  693 

this  as  a  training  for  the  work  to  which,  in  time,  she  hoped  to 
devote  herself. 

But  this  hope  was  destined  to  disappointment.  One  violent 
illness  after  another  finally  destroyed  her  health,  and  she  never 
quite  recovered  the  early  tone  of  her  system.  Yet  she  worked 
on,  doing  good  wherever  the  means  presented. 

Soon  afterwards  she  met  with  the  great  sorrow  of  her  life. 
The  young  man  to  whom  she  was  soon  to  be  married,  between 
whom  and  herself  the  strongest  attachment  existed,  cemented  by 
a  mutual  knowledge  of  noble  qualities,  was  suddenly  snatched 
from  her,  and  she  became  a  widow  in  all  but  the  name. 

This  sorrow  still  more  refined  and  beautified  her  character. 
By  degrees  the  sharpness  of  the  grief  wore  away,  and  it  became 
a  sweet,  though  saddened  memory.  Eight  years  after  her  loss, 
she  became  the  wife  of  Samuel  C.  Pomeroy,  of  Southampton, 
Massachusetts.  "They  were  of  kindred  feelings  in  life's  great 
work,  had  suffered  alike  by  early  bereavement,  and  were  drawn 
together  by  that  natural  affinity  which  unites  two  lives  in  one.77 

He  had  given  up  mercantile  business  in  Western  New  York 
not  long  before,  and  had  returned  to  his  early  home  to  care  for 
the  declining  years  of  his  aged  parents.  And  this  was  the  mis 
sionary  work  to  which  Mrs.  Pomeroy  found  herself  appointed. 
She  was  welcomed  heartily,  and  found  her  duties  rendered  light 
by  appreciation  and  affection. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  Mrs.  Pomeroy  made  herself  actively  useful 
beyond,  as  well  as  within,  her  home.  She  performed  duties  of 
Sabbath  School  and  general  religious  instruction,  that  might  be 
called  arduous,  especially  when  added  to  her  domestic  cares  and 
occupations.  These,  with  other  labors,  exhausted  her  strength, 
and  a  protracted  season  of  illness  followed. 

From  that  time,  1850,  for  five  or  six  years,  she  continued  to 
suffer,  being  most  of  the  time  very  ill,  her  life  often  despaired  of. 
During  all  this  season  of  peculiar  trial  she  never  lost  her  faith 
and  courage,  even  Avhen  her  physicians  gave  no  hope  of  her  reco- 


694 

very,  being  contented  to  abide  by  the  will  of  Providence,  con 
vinced  that  if  God  had  any  work  for  her  to  do  He  would  spare 
her  life.  During  this  time  her  husband  was  often  absent,  being 
first  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  and  afterwards  sent  out  as 
Agent  by  the  Northeastern  Aid  Society  to  Kansas,  which  they 
were  desirous  to  settle  as  a  free  State.  Into  this  last  duty  she 
insisted  with  energy  that  he  should  enter.  During  his  absence 
she  experienced  other  afflictions,  but  her  health  notwithstanding 
rallied,  and  as  soon  as  possible  she  made  preparations  to  remove 
to  Kansas  where  Mr.  Pomeroy  wished  to  make  a  home.  In  the 
spring  of  1857  she  finally  arrived  there,  and  there  she  remained 
until  the  spring  of  1861,  when  she  accompanied  her  husband  to 
Washington,  when  he  went  thither  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
Senate. 

The  hardships  and  the  usefulness  of  her  life  in  Kansas  are 
matters  of  history,  and  it  is  truly  surprising  to  read  how  one  so 
long  an  invalid  was  enabled  to  perform  such  protracted  and 
exhausted  labors.  All  who  knew  her  there  bear  ample  and 
enthusiastic  testimony  to  the  usefulness  of  her  life.  To  the  whites 
she  was  friend,  hostess,  counsellor,  assistant,  in  sickness  and  in 
health.  To  the  poor  and  despised  blacks,  striving  to  find  free 
dom,  she  was  friend  and  teacher,  even  at  the  time  when  her  near 
neighborhood  to  the  slave  State  of  Missouri,  made  the  service 
most  dangerous.  Then  followed  the  terrible  famine  year  of  1860. 
During  all  that  time  she  freely  gave  her  services  in  the  work  of 
providing  for  the  sufferers.  Mr.  Pomeroy,  aided  by  the  know 
ledge  he  had  acquired  in  his  experience  as  Agent  of  Emigration, 
was  able  at  once  to  put  the  machinery  in  motion  for  obtaining 
supplies  from  the  East,  and  Mrs.  Pomeroy  transformed  her  home 
into  an  office  of  distribution,  of  which  she  was  superintendent  and 
chief  clerk.  It  was  a  year  that  taxed  far  too  heavily  her  already 
much  exhausted  strength. 

When  she  accompanied  her  husband  to  Washington  in  the 
spring,  her  health  failed,  cough  and  hoarseness  troubled  her,  and 


MRS.  LUCY    GAYLORD    POMEROY.  695 

she  was  obliged  to  leave  for  visits  in  her  native  air,  and  for  a 
stay  of  some  months  at  Geneva  Water  Cure. 

From  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  Mrs.  Pomeroy,  on  all  occa 
sions,  proved  herself  desirous  of  the  welfare  of  our  soldiers. 
The  record  of  her  deeds  of  kindness  in  their  behalf  is  not  as 
ample  as  that  of  some  others,  for  her  health  forbade  the  active 
nursing,  and  visiting  of  the  sick  in  hospitals,  which  is  the  most 
showy  part  of  the  work.  But  her  contributions  of  supplies  were 
always  large;  and  she  had  always  a  peculiar  care  and  interest  in 
the  religious  and  moral  welfare  of  the  volunteers,  who,  far  from 
the  influences  of  home,  and  exposed  to  new  and  numerous  temp 
tations,  were,  she  felt,  in  more  than  one  sense  encircled  by  pecu 
liar  dangers. 

Only  once  did  she  revisit  her  Kansas  home,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1862  spent  some  months  there.  There  was  at  that  time  a 
regiment  in  camp  at  Atchison,  and  she  was  enabled  to  do  great 
good  to  the  sick  in  hospital,  not  only  with  supplies,  but  by  her 
own  personal  efforts  for  their  physical  and  spiritual  welfare. 

On  her  return  to  Washington  she  there  entered  as  actively  as 
possible  into  this  work.  Her  form  became  known  in  the  hos 
pitals,  and  many  a  suffering  man  hailed  her  coming  with  a  new 
light  kindling  his  dimmed  eyes.  She  brought  them  comforts  and 
delicacies,  and  she  added  her  prayers  and  her  precious  instruc 
tions.  She  cared  both  for  souls  and  bodies,  and  earned  the 
immortal  gratitude  of  those  to  whom  she  ministered. 

In  January,  1863,  her  last  active  benevolent  work  was  com 
menced,  namely  the  foundation  of  an  asylum  at  the  National 
Capital  for  the  freed  orphans  and  destitute  aged  colored  women 
whom  the  war,  and  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  had 
thrown  upon  the  care  of  the  benevolent.  For  several  months 
she  was  actively  engaged  in  this  enterprise.  A  charter  was  im 
mediately  obtained,  and  when  the  Association  was  organized, 

•/  O 

Mrs.  Pomeroy  was  chosen  President. 

Almost  entirely  by  her  exertions,  a  building  for  the  Asylum 


696 

was  obtained,  as  well  as  some  condemned  hospital  furniture,  which 
was  to  be  sold  at  auction  by  the  Government,  but  was  instead 
transferred — a  most  useful  gift — to  the  Asylum. 

But  when  the  time  came,  about  the  1st  of  June,  1863,  for  the 
Association  to  be  put  in  possession  of  the  buildings  and  grounds 
assigned  them,  Mrs.  Pomeroy  was  too  ill  to  receive  the  keys,  and 
the  Secretary  took  her  place.  She  was  never  able  to  look  upon 
the  fruit  of  her  labors.  Again,  she  had  exhausted  her  feeble 
powers,  and  she  was  never  more  to  rally. 

A  slow  fever  followed,  which  at  last  assumed  the  form  of 
typhoid.  She  lingered  on,  slightly  better  at  times,  until  the 
17th  of  July,  when  preparations  were  completed  for  removing 
her  to  the  Geneva  Water  Cure,  and  she  started  upon  her  last 
journey.  She  went  by  water,  and  arrived  at  New  York  very 
comfortably,  leaving  there  again  on  the  boat  for  Albany,  on  the 
morning  of  the  20th.  But  death  overtook  her  before  even  this 
portion  of  the  journey  was  finished.  She  died  upon  the  passage, 
on  the  afternoon  of  July  20th,  1863.  After  her  life  of  useful 
ness  and  devotion,  her  name  at  last  stands  high  upon  the  roll  of 
martyr-women,  whom  this  war  has  made. 


MARIA  R.  MANN. 


MONG  the  heroic  women  who  labored  most  efficiently 
and  courageously  during  the  late  civil  war  for  the  good 
of  our  soldiers,  and  the  poor  "contrabands,"  as  the 
freed  people  were  called,  was  Miss  Maria  K.  Mann,  an 
educated  and  refined  woman  from  Massachusetts,  a  near  relative 
of  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  that  re 
nowned  Commonwealth,  who  gave  his  life  and  all  his  great 
powers  to  the  cause  of  education,  and  finished  his  noble  career  as 
the  President  of  Antioch  College,  in  Ohio. 

Miss  Mann,  is  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  spent  the  greater 
portion  of  her  mature  life  previous  to  the  war,  as  a  teacher.  In 
this,  her  chosen  profession,  she  attained  a  high  position,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  taught  in  the  High  Schools.  As  a  teacher  she 
was  highly  esteemed  for  her  varied  and  accurate  knowledge,  the 
care  and  minuteness  with  which  she  imparted  instruction  to  her 
pupils,  the  high  moral  and  religious  principle  which  controlled 
her  actions,  and  made  her  life  an  example  of  truth  and  goodness 
to  her  pupils,  and  for  her  enthusiastic  interest  in  the  cause  of 
education,  of  freedom  and  justice  for  the  slave,  and  of  philan 
thropy  and  humanity  towards  the  orphan,  the  prisoner,  the  out 
cast,  the  oppressed  and  the  poor,  to  whom  her  heart  went  out  in 
kindly  sympathies,  and  in  prayer  and  effort  for  the  improvement 
of  their  condition. 

During  the  first  year  of  the  rebellion,  she  left  all  her  pleasant 
associations  in  New  England,  and  came  out  to  St.  Louis,  that  she 

88  697 


698 

might  be  nearer  to  the  scene  of  conflict,  and  aid  in  the  work  of 
the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  and  in  nursing  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers,  with  whom  the  hospitals  at  St.  Louis  were 
crowded  that  year.  On  her  arrival,  she  was  duly  commissioned 
by  Mr.  Yeatman,  (the  agent  of  Miss  Dix  for  the  employment  of 
women  nurses),  and  entered  upon  her  duties  in  the  Fifth  Street 
Hospital. 

For  several  months,  she  devoted  herself  to  this  work  with 
great  fidelity  and  patience,  and  won  the  gratitude  of  many  a  poor 
sufferer  by  her  kindness,  and  the  respect  of  the  surgeons,  by  her 
good  judgment  and  her  blended  gentleness  and  womanly  dignity. 

Late  in  the  fall  of  1862,  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission  was 
moved  to  establish  an  agency  at  Helena,  Ark.,  for  the  special  re 
lief  of  several  hundred  colored  families  at  that  military  post  who 
had  gathered  there  from  the  neighboring  country,  and  from  the 
opposite  shore  in  Mississippi,  as  a  place  of  refuge  from  their  rebel 
owners.  It  was  at  that  time  a  miserable  refuge,  for  the  post  was 
commanded  by  pro-slavery  Generals,  who  succeeded  the  humane 
and  excellent  Major-General  Curtis,  who  was  unfortunately  re 
lieved  of  his  command,  and  transferred  to  St.  Louis,  in  conse 
quence  of  slanders  against  him  at  Washington,  which  some  of 
his  pro-slavery  subordinates  had  been  busy  in  fabricating ;  and 
the  free  papers  which  he  gave  to  the  colored  people  were  violated ; 
they  were  subjected  to  all  manner  of  cruelties  and  hardships ;  they 
were  put  under  a  forced  system  of  labor;  driven  by  mounted 
orderlies  to  work  on  the  fortifications,  and  to  unload  steamboats 
and  coal  barges ;  and  discharged  at  night  without  compensation, 
or  a  comfortable  shelter.  No  proper  record  was  kept  of  their 
services,  and  most  of  them  never  received  any  pay  for  months  of 
incessant  toil.  They  were  compelled  to  camp  together  in  the  out 
skirts  of  the  town,  in  huts  and  condemned  tents,  and  the  rations 
issued  to  them  were  cut  down  to  a  half  ration  for  the  women  and 
children ;  so  that  they  were  neither  well  fed  nor  sheltered  pro 
perly  from  the  weather,  while  they  were  entirely  destitute  of  com- 


MARIA    R.  MANN.  699 

fortable  clothing,  and  were  without  the  means  of  purchasing  new. 
Subjected  to  this  treatment,  very  great  sickness  and  mortality 
prevailed  among  them.  In  the  miserable  building  assigned  them 
for  a  hospital,  which  was  wholly  unprovided  with  hospital  fur 
niture  and  bedding,  and  without  regular  nurses  or  attendants, 
they  were  visited  once  a  day  by  a  contract  surgeon,  who  merely 
looked  in  upon  them,  administered  a  little  medicine,  and  left  them 
to  utter  neglect  and  misery.  Here  they  died  at  a  fearful  rate,  and 
their  dead  bodies  were  removed  from  the  miserable  pallet  of  straw, 
or  the  bare  floor  where  they  had  breathed  their  last,  and  buried 
in  rude  coffins,  and  sometimes  coffinless,  in  a  low  piece  of  ground 
near  by.  The  proportion  of  deaths,  was  about  seventy-five  per 
cent,  of  all  who  were  carried  sick  to  this  miserable  place,  so  that 
the  colored  people  became  greatly  afraid  of  being  sent  to  the  hos 
pital,  considering  it  the  same  as  going  to  a  certain  death ;  and 
many  of  them  refused  to  go,  even  in  the  last  stages  of  sickness, 
and  died  in  their  huts,  and  in  and  out  of  the  very  places  into 
which  they  had  crawled  for  concealment,  neglected  and  alone. 

This  state  of  things  was  fully  known  to  the  Generals  com 
manding,  and  to  the  medical  director,  and  the  army  surgeons  at 
Helena,  without  the  least  effort  being  made  on  their  part  towards 
their  improvement  or  alleviation.  From  August,  1862,  to  Jan 
uary,  1863,  they  continued  to  suffer  in  this  manner,  until  the 
printed  report  and  appeal  of  the  chaplains  at  Helena  for  aid, 
brought  some  voluntary  contributions  of  clothing,  and  secured 
the  attention  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  at  St.  Louis, 
to  the  great  need  of  help  at  Helena,  for  the  "  contrabands." 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Commission  proposed  to  Miss 
Mann  to  go  to  Helena,  and  act  the  part  of  the  Good  Samaritan  to  the 
colored  people  who  had  congregated  there;  to  establish  a  hospital 
for  the  sick  among  them;  to  supply  them  with  clothing  and  other 
necessaries,  and  in  all  possible  ways  to  improve  their  condition. 
The  offer  was  readily  accepted  by  her,  and  in  the  month  of  Jan 
uary  she  arrived  at  Helena,  with  an  ample  supply  of  sanitary 


700  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

goods  and  clothing,  and  with  letters  commending  her  to  the 
protection  and  aid  of  the  commanding  general,  and  to  the  chap 
lain  of  the  post,  (who  now  furnishes  this  sketch  from  his  mem 
ory),  and  to  the  superintendent  of  freedmen,  who  welcomed  her 
as  a  providential  messenger  whom  God  had  sent  to  his  neglected 
and  suffering  poor. 

The  passage  from  St.  Louis  to  Helena,  a  distance  of  six  hundred 
miles,  in  mid-winter,  at  a  time  when  the  steamers  were  fired  on 
by  guerrillas  from  the  shore,  and  sometimes  captured,  was  made 
by  Miss  Mann,  unattended,  and  without  knowing  where  she 
would  find  a  shelter  when  she  arrived.  The  undertaking  was 
attended  with  difficulty  arid  danger,  and  many  obstacles  were  to- 
be  overcome,  but  the  brave  spirit  of  this  noble  woman  knew  no 
such  word  as  fail.  Fortunately,  the  post  chaplain,  who  had  been 
detailed  to  a  service  requiring  clerks,  was  able  to  receive  Miss 
Mann,  provide  rooms  for  her,  give  her  a  place  at  the  mess 
board,  and  render  useful  aid  in  her  work.  He  remembers  with  a 
grateful  interest  how  bravely  she  encountered  every  difficulty,  and 
persevered  in  her  humane  undertaking,  until  almost  every  evil 
the'  colored  people  suffered  was  removed.  A  new  hospital  build 
ing  was  secured,  furnished,  and  provided  with  good  surgeons 
and  nurses,  and  the  terrible  sickness  and  mortality  reduced  to  the 
minimum  per-centage  of  the  best  regulated  hospitals;  a  new  and 
better  camping  ground  was  obtained,  and  buildings  erected  for 
shelter;  a  school  for  the  children  was  established,  and  the  women 
taught  how  to  cut  and  make  garments,  and  advised  and  instructed 
how  to  live  and  be  useful  to  themselves  and  their  families.  Ma 
terial  for  clothing  was  furnished  them,  which  they  made  up  for 
themselves.  As  the  season  of  spring  came,  the  able-bodied  men 
were  enlisted  as  soldiers,  by  a  new  order  of  the  Government; 
those  who  were  not  fit  for  the  military  service  were  hired  by  the 
new  lessees  of  the  plantations,  and  the  condition  of  the  colored 
people  was  changed  from  one  of  utter  misery  and  despair,  to  one 
of  thrift,  improvement  and  comparative  happiness. 


MARIA    R.  MANN.  701 

In  all  these  changes  Miss  Mann  was  a  moving  spirit,  and  with 
the  co-operation  of  the  chaplains,  and  the  friendly  sanction  and 
aid  of  Major-General  Prentiss — who  on  his  arrival  in  February, 
1863,  introduced  a  more  humane  treatment  of  the  freed  people — 
she  was  able  to  fulfil  her  benevolent  mission,  and  remained  till 
the  month  of  August  of  that  year. 

The  heroism  of  Miss  Mann  during  the  winter  season  at  Helena, 
was  a  marvel  to  us  all.  It  was  an  exceedingly  rainy  winter,  and 
the  streets  were  often  knee  deep  with  mud.  The  town  is  built  on 
a  level,  marshy  region  of  bottom  land,  and  for  weeks  the  roads 
became  almost  impassable,  and  had  to  be  waded  on  horseback,  or 
the  levee  followed,  and  causeways  had  to  be  built  by  the  military. 
But  Miss  Mann  was  not  to  be  prevented  by  these  difficulties  from 
visiting  the  "Contraband  Hospital,"  as  it  was  called,  and  from 
going  her  rounds  to  the  families  of  the  poor  colored  people  who 
needed  her  advice  and  assistance.  I  have  often  taken  her  myself 
in  an  open  wagon  with  which  we  carried  the  mail  bags  to  and 
from  the  steamers — having  charge  of  the  military  post-office — 
and  conveyed  her  from  place  to  place,  when  the  wheels  would 
sink  almost  to  the  hubs,  and  returned  with  her  to  her  quarters; 
and  on  several  occasions  when  she  had  gone  on  foot  when  the 
side-walks  were  dry,  and  she  came  to  a  crossing  that  required 
deep  wading,  I  have  known  her  to  call  some  stout  black  man  to 
her  aid,  to  carry  her  across,  and  set  her  down  on  the  opposite  side 
walk.  In  these  cases  the  service  was  rendered  with  true  polite 
ness  and  gallantry,  and  with  the  remark,  "  Bress  the  Lord,  missus, 
it's  no  trouble  to  carry  you  troo  de  mud,  and  keep  your  feet  dry, 
you  who  does  so  much  for  us  black  folks.  You's  light  as  a 
fedder,  anyhow,  and  de  good  Lord  gibs  you  a  wonderful  sight 
of  strength  to  go  'bout  dis  yere  muddy  town,  to  see  de  poor 
culled  folks,  and  gib  medicines  to  the  sick,  and  feed  the  hungry, 
and  clothe  de  naked,  and  I  bress  de  good  Lord  dat  he  put  it  into 
your  heart  to  come  to  Helena." 

In  the  autumn  of  1863  Miss  Mann  felt  that  her  work  in  Helena 


702  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

was  accomplished,  and  she  returned  to  St.  Louis,  the  colored 
people  greatly  lamenting  her  departure.  In  her  work  there  she 
not  only  had  the  co-operation  and  assistance  of  the  Western  Sani 
tary  Commission,  but  of  many  benevolent  ladies  in  New  England, 
personal  friends  of  Miss  Mann  and  others,  who,  through  Rev. 
Dr.  Eliot  of  St.  Louis,  supplied  a  large  portion  of  the  funds 
that  were  necessary  to  defray  the  expenses  of  our  mission. 

A  new  call  to  a  theatre  of  usefulness  in  Washington  City,  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  now  came  to  Miss  Mann,  to  become  the 
teacher  of  a  colored  orphan  asylum,  which  she  accepted,  where 
she  devoted  her  energies  to  the  welfare  of  the  children  of  those 
who  in  the  army,  or  in  some  other  service  to  their  country  and 
race  have  laid  down  their  lives,  and  left  their  helpless  offspring 
to  be  cared  for  by  Him,  who  hears  even  the  young  ravens  when 
they  cry,  and  moves  human  hearts  to  fulfil  the  ministry  of  his 
love;  and  who  by  his  Spirit  is  moving  the  American  people  to 
do  justly  to  the  freed  people  of  this  land,  and  to  make  reparation 
for  the  oppression  and  wrong  they  have  endured  for  so  many 
generations. 

After  rendering  a  useful  and  excellent  service  as  a  teacher  in 
the  Colored  Orphan  Asylum  at  Washington,  she  was  induced  by 
the  colored  people,  who  greatly  appreciated  her  work  for  their 
children,  to  establish  an  independent  school  in  Georgetown. 
Friends  at  the  North  purchased  a  portable  building  for  a  school- 
house;  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  offered  her  a  lot  of  ground  to  put 
it  on,  but  not  being  in  the  right  locality  she  rented  one,  and  the 
building  was  sent  to  her,  and  has  been  beautifully  fitted  up  for 
the  purpose.  The  school  has  been  successfully  established,  and 
under  her  excellent  management,  teaching,  and  discipline,  it  has 
become  a  model  school.  Intelligent  persons  visiting  it  are  im 
pressed  by  the  perfect  order  maintained,  and  the  advancement  of 
the  scholars  in  knowledge  and  good  behaviour. 

Miss  Mann  has  made  many  personal  sacrifices  in  establishing 
and  carrying  forward  this  school  without  government  patronage 


MARIA    R.  MANN.  703 

or  support,  and  the  only  fear  concerning  it  is  that  the  colored 
people  will  not  be  able  from  their  limited  resources  to  sustain  it. 
It  is  her  wish  to  prepare  her  scholars  to  become  teachers  of  other 
colored  schools,  a  work  she  is  amply  and  remarkably  qualified  to 
do,  and  one  in  which  she  would  be  sustained  by  philanthropic 
aid,  if  the  facts  were  known  to  those  who  feel  the  importance  of 
all  such  efforts  for  the  education  and  improvement  of  the  colored 
people  of  this  country,  in  the  new  position  upon  which  they  have 
entered  as  free  citizens  of  the  republic. 

Among  the  gratifying  results  which  Miss  Mann  has  found  in 
this  work  of  instruction  among  the  colored  people  are  the  rapid 
improvement  she  has  witnessed  among  them,  the  capacity  and 
eagerness  with  which  they  pursue  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
the  gratitude  they  have  evinced  to  her,  and  the  consciousness  that 
she  has  contributed  to  their  welfare  and  happiness. 

As  a  noble,  self-sacrificing  woman,  devoted  to  the  service  of 
her  fellow-beings,  and  endowed  with  the  best  attributes  of  human 
nature,  Miss  Mann  deserves  the  title  of  a  Christian  philanthropist, 
and  her  life  and  labors  will  be  remembered  with  gratitude,  and 
the  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish,  and  of  those  who 
had  no  helper,  will  follow  her  all  the  remainder  of  her  days. 


SARAH    J.   HAGAR. 


T  is  due  to  the  memory  of  this  noble  young  woman  that 
she  should  be  included  in  the  record  of  those  sainted 
heroines  who  fearlessly  went  into  the  midst  of  danger 
and  death  that  they  might  minister  to  the  poor  and 
suffering  freedmen,  whom  our  victorious  arms  had  emancipated 
from  their  rebel  masters,  and  yet  had  left  for  a  time  without 
means  or  opportunity  to  fit  themselves  for  the  new  life  that 
opened  before  them.  To  this  humane  service  she  freely  devoted 
herself  and  became  a  victim  to  the  climate  of  the  lower  Missis 
sippi,  while  engaged  in  the  arduous  work  of  ministering  to  the 
physical  wants  and  the  education  of  the  freed  people,  who  in  the 
winter  and  spring  of  1864,  had  gathered  in  camps  around  Yicks- 
burg,  and  along  the  Louisiana  shore. 

Miss  Hagar  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mrs.  C.  C.  Hagar,  who 
also  was  one  of  the  army  of  heroic  nurses  who  served  in  the  hos 
pitals  of  St.  Louis  during  the  greater  part  of  the  war.  For  many 
months  they  had  served  together  in^the  same  hospital,  and  by 
their  faithfulness  and  careful  ministrations  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldier  had  won  the  highest  confidence  of  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission,  by  whose  President  they  were  appointed. 

During  the  fall  of  1863  the  National  Freedmen's  Aid  Com 
mission  of  New  York,  under  the  presidency  of  Hon.  Francis  G. 
Shaw,  sent  two  agents,  Messrs.  William  L.  Marsh  and  H.  R. 
Foster,  to  Vicksburg,  to  establish  an  agency  there,  and  at  Natchez, 
for  the  aid  of  the  freed  people,  in  furnishing  supplies  of  food  and 

704 


SARAH    J.  HAGAR.  705 

clothing  to  the  destitute,  and  establishing  schools  for  the  children 
of  the  freedmen,  and  for  such  adults  as  could  attend,  and  to  help 
them  in  all  possible  ways  to  enter  upon  the  new  and  better  civi 
lization  that  awaited  them.  In  this  work  the  Western  Sanitary 
Commission  co-operated,  and  Messrs.  Marsh  and  Foster  wrote  to 
the  writer  of  this  sketch,  then  acting  as  Secretary  of  the  above 
Commission,  to  send  them  several  teachers  and  assistants  in  their 
work.  Among  those  who  volunteered  for  the  service  was  Miss 
Hagar,  wrho  was  wanted  in  another  situation  in  St.  Louis,  but 
preferred  this  more  arduous  work  for  the  freedmen. 

The  reasons  she  gave  for  her  choice  were,  that  she  was  well  and 
strong,  and  felt  a  real  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  freed  people ; 
that  she  had  no  prejudices  against  them,  and  that  while  there  were 
enough  who  were  willing  to  fill  the  office  of  nurse  to  the  white 
soldiers,  it  was  more  difficult  to  get  those  who  would  render  equal 
kindness  and  justice  to  the  black  troops,  and  to  the  freed  people, 
and  therefore  she  felt  it  her  duty  and  pleasure  to  go.  She  was 
accordingly  commissioned,  and  with  Miss  A.  M.  Knight,  of  Sun 
Prairie,  Wisconsin,  (another  worthy  laborer  in  the  same  cause) 
went  down  the  river  to  Vicksburg,  in  the  winter  of  1864. 

For  several  months  she  labored  therewith  untiring  devotion 
to  the  interests  and  welfare  of  the  colored  people,  under  the  di 
rection  of  Messrs.  Marsh  and  Foster.  No  task  was  too  difficult 
for  her  to  undertake  that  promised  good  results,  and  in  danger  of 
all  kinds,  whether  from  disease,  or  from  the  assaults  of  the  enemy, 
she  never  lost  her  presence  of  mind,  nor  was  wanting  in  the  re 
quisite  courage  for  that  emergency.  In  person  she  was  above  the 
medium  height,  and  had  a  face  beaming  with  kindness,  and  pleas 
ant  to  look  upon.  Her  mind  had  received  a  good  degree  of  cul 
ture,  and  her  natural  intelligence  was  of  a  high  order.  And 
better  than  all  within  her  earthly  form  dwelt  a  noble  and  heroic 
soul. 

Late  in  April  of  that  year,  she  had  an  attack  of  malarial  fever, 
which  prostrated  her  very  suddenly,  and  just  in  the  proportion 

89 


706 

that  she  had  been  strong  and  apparently  well  fortified  against 
disease,  it  took  a  deep  hold  of  her  vital  powers,  and  on  the  3d 
of  May,  she  yielded  to  the  fell  destroyer,  and  breathed  no  more. 

The  following  tribute  to  her  character,  is  taken  from  the  letter 
of  Mr.  Marsh,  in  which  he  communicated  the  sad  tidings  of  her 
death. 

"  In  her  death  the  National  Freedmen's  Aid  Association,  has 
lost  a  most  earnest,  devoted,  Christian  laborer.  She  entered  upon 
her  duties  at  a  time  of  great  suffering  and  destitution  among  the 
Freedmen  at  Yicksburg,  and  when  we  were  much  in  need  of  aid. 
The  fidelity  with  which  she  performed  her  labors,  and  the  deep 
interest  she  manifested  in  them  soon  endeared  her  to  us  all.  We 
shall  miss  her  sorely ;  but  the  noble  example  she  has  left  us  will 
encourage  us  to  greater  efforts,  and  more  patient  toil.  She  seemed 
also  to  realize  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  this  work  upon 
which  she  had  entered,  and  the  need  of  Divine  assistance  in  its 
performance.  She  seemed  also  to  realize  what  sacrifice  might  be 
demanded  of  one  engaged  in  a  work  like  this,  and  the  summons, 
although  sudden,  did  not  find  her  unprepared  to  meet  it.  She 
has  done  a  noble  work,  and  done  it  well. 

"  The  sacrifice  she  made  is  the  greatest  one  that  can  be  made  for 
any  cause,  the  sacrifice  of  life.  '  Greater  love  than  this  hath  no 
man,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends/  She  has  gone 
to  receive  her  reward." 

Her  remains  were  brought  to  her  native  town  in  Illinois,  and 
deposited  there,  where  the  blessed  memory  she  has  left  among  her 
friends  and  kindred,  is  cherished  with  heartfelt  reverence  and 
affection. 


MRS.   JOSEPHINE    R.    GRIFFIN. 


F  the  most  thoroughly  unselfish  devotion  of  an  earnest 
and  gifted  woman  to  the  interests  and  welfare  of 
a  despised  and  down-trodden  race,  to  the  manifest 
injury  and  detriment  of  her  own  comfort,  ease,  or 
pecuniary  prospects,  and  without  any  hope  or  desire  of  reward 
other  than  the  consciousness  of  having  been  their  benefactor,  con 
stitutes  a  woman  a  heroine,  then  is  Mrs.  Griffin  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  heroines  of  our  times. 

Of  her  early  history  we  know  little.  She  was  a  woman  of 
refinement  and  culture,  has  always  been  remarkable  for  her 
energy  and  resolution,  as  well  as  for  her  philanthropic  zeal  for 
the  poor  and  oppressed.  The  beginning  of  the  war  found  her  a 
widow,  with,  we  believe,  three  children,  all  daughters,  in  Wash 
ington,  D.  C.  Of  these  daughters,  the  eldest  has  a  position  in 
the  Treasury  Department,  a  second  has  for  some  time  assisted  her 
mother  in  her  labors,  and  the  youngest  is  in  school.  Mrs.  Grif 
fin  was  too  benevolent  ever  to  be  rich,  and  when  the  freedmen 
and  their  families  began  to  concentrate  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  on  Arlington  Heights,  across  the  Potomac,  she  sought 
them  out,  and  made  the  effort  to  ameliorate  their  condition.  At 
that  time  they  hardly  knew  whether  they  were  to  be  permanently 
free  or  not,  and  massed  together  as  they  were,  their  old  slave 
habits  of  recklessness,  disorder,  and  over-crowding  soon  gained 
the  predominance,  and  showed  their  evil  effect  in  producing  a 
fearful  amount  of  sickness  and  death.  They  were  not,  with 

707 


708  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

comparatively  few  exceptions,  indolent;  but  they  had  naturally 
lapsed  into  the  easy,  slovenly  methods,  or  rather  Avant  of  method 
of  the  old  slave  life,  and  a  few  were  doing  the  greater  part  of 
what  was  done.  They  were  mere  children  in  capacity,  will  and 
perseverance.  Mrs.  Griffin,  with  her  intensely  energetic  nature, 
soon  effected  a  change.  Order  took  the  place  of  disorder,  under 
her  direction;  new  cabins  were  built,  neatness  and  system  main 
tained,  till  their  good  effects  were  so  apparent,  that  the  freedmen 
voluntarily  pursued  the  course  advised  by  their  teacher  and 
friend;  all  who  were  able  to  do  any  work  were  provided  as  far  as 
possible  with  employment,  and  schools  for  the  children  in  the 
day  time,  and  for  adults  in  the  evening,  were  established.  In 
this  good  Avork  she  received  material  assistance  from  that  devoted 
young  Christian  now  gone  to  his  rest,  the  late  Cornelius  M. 
Welles.  After  awhile,  the  able-bodied  men  were  enlisted  in  the 
army,  and  the  stronger  and  healthier  women  provided  with  situ 
ations  in  many  instances  at  the  North,  and  the  children,  and 
feeble,  decrepit  men  and  women,  could  not  perform  work  enough 
for  their  maintenance.  Mrs.  Griffin  began  to  solicit  aid  for  them, 
and  carried  them  through  one  winter  by  the  assistance  she  was  able 
to  collect,  and  by  what  she  gave  from  her  own  not  over-full  purse. 
Some  land  was  now  allotted  to  them,  and  by  the  utmost  diligence 
they  were  enabled  to  provide  almost  entirely  for  themselves,  till 
autumn ;  but  meantime  the  Act  of  Emancipation  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  had  drawn  thither  some  thousands  of  people  of 
color  from  the  adjacent  states  of  Maryland  and  Virginia.  All 
looked  up  to  Mrs.  Griffin  as  their  special  Providence.  She  was 
satisfied  that  it  was  better  for  them,  as  far  as  possible,  to  find 
places  and  work  in  the  Northern  States,  than  to  remain  there, 
where  employment  was  precarious,  and  where  the  excessive 
number  of  workers  had  reduced  the  wages  of  such  as  could  find 
employment.  She  accordingly  commenced  an  extensive  corre 
spondence,  to  obtain  from  persons  at  the  North  in  want  of  ser 
vants,  orders  for  such  as  could  be  supplied  from  the  colored 


MRS.  JOSEPHINE    It.  GRIFFIN".  709 

people  residing  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Having  completely 
systematized  the  matter,  she  has  been  in  the  habit,  for  nearly  two 
years  past,  of  leaving  Washington  once  or  twice  a  week,  with  a 
company  of  colored  persons,  for  whom  she  had  obtained  situations 
in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  or 
smaller  cities,  paying  their  fare,  providing  them  with  food  on  the 
journey,  and  at  its  termination  until  she  could  put  them  into  the 
families  who  had  engaged  them,  and  then  returning  to  make  up 
another  compa-ny.  The  cost  of  these  expeditions  she  has  provided 
almost  entirely  from  her  own  means,  her  daughters  who  have  im 
bibed  their  mother's  spirit,  helping  as  far  as  possible  in  this  noble 
work.  In  the  autumn  of  1865  she  found  that  notwithstanding 
all  for  whom  she  could  provide  situations,  there  were  likely  to  be 
not  less  than  twenty  thousand  colored  persons,  freedmen  and 
their  families,  in  a  state  of  complete  destitution  before  the  1st  of 
December,  and  she  published  in  the  Washington  and  other 
papers,  an  appeal  to  the  benevolent  to  help.  The  Freedmen's 
Bureau  at  first  denied  the  truth  of  her  statements,  but  further 
investigation  convinced  them  that  she  was  right,  and  they  were 
wrong,  and  Congress  was  importuned  for  an  appropriation  for 
their  necessities.  Twenty-five  thousand  dollars  were  appropriated, 
and  its  distribution  left  to  the  Frcedmen's  Bureau.  It  would 
have  been  more  wisely  distributed  had  it  been  entrusted  to  Mrs. 
Griffin,  as  she  was  more  thoroughly  cognizant  of  the  condition 
and  real  wants  of  the  people  than  the  Bureau  could  be.  Mrs. 
Griffin  has  pursued  her  work  of  providing  situations  for  the 
freedmen,  and  watching  over  their  interests  to  the  present  time; 
and  so  long  as  life  and  health  lasts,  she  is  not  likely  to  give  it  up. 


MRS.   M.   M.    HALLOWELL. 


HE  condition  of  the  loyal  whites  of  East  Tennessee 
and  Northern  Alabama  and  Georgia,  deservedly  ex 
cited  the  sympathy  and  liberality  of  the  loyal  North. 
No  portion  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  had 
proved  their  devotion  to  the  Union  by  more  signal  sacrifices, 
more  patient  endurance,  or  more  terrible  sufferings..  The  men 
for  the  mere  avowal  of  their  attachment  to  the  Union  flag  and 
the  Constitution  were  hunted  like  deer,  and  if  caught,  murdered 
in  cold  blood.  Most  of  them  managed,  though  with  great  peril, 
to  escape  to  the  Union  army,  where  they  became  valuable  sol 
diers,  and  by  their  thorough  knowledge  of  the  country  and  their 
skill  in  wood-craft  rendered  important  service  as  scouts  and  pio 
neers.  Whenever  they  escaped  the  Rebels  visited  them,  their 
houses  were  plundered,  their  cattle  and  other  live  stock  seized, 
and  if  the  house  was  in  a  Rebel  neighborhood  or  in  a  secluded 
situation,  it  was  burned  and  the  wife  and  children  driven  out 
penniless,  and  often  maltreated,  outraged  or  murdered.  If  they 
escaped  with  their  lives  they  were  obliged  to  hide  in  the  caves  or 
woods  by  day,  and  travel  often  hundreds  of  miles  by  night,  to 
reach  the  Union  lines.  They  came  in,  wearied,  footsore,  in  rags, 
and  often  sick  and  nearly  dead  from  starvation.  When  they 
reached  Nashville,  or  Knoxville  after  it  came  into  our  possession, 
they  were  in  need  of  all  things;  shelter,  food,  clothing,  medicine 
and  care.  A  few  of  them  were  well  educated;  the  majority  were 
illiterate  so  far  as  book  knowledge  was  concerned,  but  intelligent 

710 


MRS.  M.  M.  HALLOWELL.  711 

and  thoughtful  on  the  subject  of  loyalty  and  the  war;  not  a  few 
were  almost  reduced  to  a  state  of  fatuity  by  their  sufferings,  and 
seemed  to  have  lost  all  distinct  consciousness  of  what  was  occur 
ring  around  them.  Nashville  and  Knoxville  a  little  later,  Mem 
phis,  Cairo,  St.  Louis,  and  Louisville  swarmed  with  these  poor 
loyal  people,  and  efforts  were  made  in  each  city  to  aid  them.  In 
the  Northern  cities  large  contributions  of  money  and  clothing 
were  made  for  their  relief.  In  Boston,  Edward  Everett,  ever 
ready  to  aid  the  suffering,  gave  the  great  influence  of  his  name, 
as  well  as  his  personal  efforts,  (almost  the  last  act  of  his  well-spent 
life)  in  raising  a  liberal  fund  for  their  help.  In  New  York, 
Brooklyn  and  other  cities,  efforts  were  made  which  resulted  in 
large  contributions.  In  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  M.  M.  Hallowell,  a 
lady  of  high  position  and  great  energy,  appealed  to  the  public  for 
aid  for  these  unfortunate  people,  and  Governor  Curtin  and  many 
other  State  and  National  official  personages,  gave  their  influence 
and  contributions  to  the  work.  A  large  amount  of  money  and 
stores  having  been  collected,  Mrs.  Hallowell  and  a  committee  of 
ladies  from  Philadelphia  visited  Nashville,  Knoxville,  Chatta 
nooga  and  Huntsville  to  distribute  their  stores  in  person.  The 
journey  undertaken  early  in  May,  1864,  was  not  unattended  with 
danger;  for,  though  General  Sherman  had  commenced  his  great 
march  toward  Atlanta,  Forrest,  Morgan  and  Wheeler  were  ex 
erting  themselves  to  cut  his  communications  and  break  up  his 
connection  with  his  base.  Along  some  portions  of  the  route  the 
guerrillas  swarmed,  and  more  than  once  the  cars  were  delayed  by 
reports  of  trouble  ahead.  The  courageous  ladies,  however,  pushed 
forward  and  received  from  the  generals  in  command  the  most 
hearty  welcome,  and  all  the  facilities  they  required  for  their  mis 
sion.  They  found  that  the  suffering  of  the  loyal  refugees  had  not 
been  exaggerated;  that  in  many  cases  their  misery  was  beyond 
description,  and  that  from  hunger,  cold,  nakedness,  the  want  of 
suitable  shelter,  and  the  prevalence  of  malignant  typhoid  fever, 
measles,  scarlet  fever  and  the  other  diseases  which  usually  prevail 


712 

among  the  wretched  and  starving  poor,  very  many  had  died,  and 
others  could  not  long  survive.  They  distributed  their  stores 
freely  yet  judiciously,  arranged  to  aid  a  home  and  farm  for  Refu 
gees  and  Orphans  which  had  been  established  near  Nashville,  and 
to  render  future  assistance  to  those  in  need  at  Knoxville,  Chatta 
nooga,  &c.,  and  returned  to  Philadelphia.  Mrs.  Hallowell  vis 
ited  them  again  in  the  autumn,  and  continued  her  labors  for  them 
till  after  the  close  of  the  war.  The  Home  for  Refugees  and 
Orphans  near  Nashville,  formed  a  part  of  the  battle  ground  in 
the  siege  and  battles  of  Nashville  in  December,  1864,  and  was 
completely  ruined  for  the  time.  Some  new  buildings  of  a  tem 
porary  character  were  subsequently  erected,  but  the  close  of  the 
war  soon  rendered  its  further  occupation  unnecessary. 

Mrs.  HallowelFs  earnest  and  continued  labors  for  the  refugees 
drew  forth  from  the  loyal  men  and  women  of  East  Tennessee 
letters  full  of  gratitude  and  expressive  of  the  great  benefits  she 
had  conferred  on  them.  Colonel  N.  G.  Taylor,  representative  in 
Congress  from  East  Tennessee,  and  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
speakers  and  writers  in  the  West,  among  others,  addressed  her  an 
interesting  and  touching  letter  of  thanks  for  what  she  had  done 
for  his  persecuted  and  tried  constituents,  from  which  we  quote  a 
single  paragraph. 

"Accept,  my  dear  madam,  for  yourself  and  those  associated 
with  you,  the  warmest  thanks  of  their  representative,  for  the 
noble  efforts  you  have  been  and  are  making  for  the  relief  of  my 
poor,  afflicted,  starving  people.  Most  of  the  men  of  East  Ten 
nessee  are  bleeding  at  the  front  for  our  country  (this  letter  was 
written  before  the  close  of  the  war)  whilst  their  wives  and  little 
ones  are  dying  of  starvation  at  home.  They  are  worthy  of  your 
sympathy  and  your  labor,  for  they  have  laid  all  their  substance 
upon  the  altar  of  our  country  and  have  sacrificed  everything  they 
had  for  their  patriotism.'7 


OTHER    FRIENDS    OF    THE    FREED- 
MEN   AND    REFUGEES. 


many  of  the  preceding  sketches  we  have  had  occasion 
to  notice  the  labors  of  ladies  who  had  been  most  dis 
tinguished  in  other  departments  of  the  great  Army 
work,  in  behalf  of  the  Freedmen,  or  the  Refugees. 
Mrs.  Harris  devoted  in  all  five  or  six  months  to  their  care  at 
Nashville  and  its  vicinity.  Miss  Tyson  and  Mrs.  Beck  gave 
their  valuable  services  to  their  relief.  Miss  Jane  Stuart  Woolsey 
was,  and  we  believe  still  is  laboring  in  behalf  of  the  Freedmen 
in  Richmond  or  its  vicinity.  Mrs.  Governor  Hawley  of  Con 
necticut  was  among  the  first  to  instruct  them  at  Fernandina  and 
Hilton  Head.  Miss  Gilson  devoted  nearly  the  whole  of  the  last 
year  of  her  service  in  the  army  to  the  freedmen  and  the  hospital 
for  colored  soldiers.  In  the  West,  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Starr,  while 
Matron  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Memphis,  bestowed  a  large 
amount  of  labor  on  the  Refugees  who  were  congregated  in  great 
numbers  in  that  city.  Mrs.  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  the  wife  of  the  gal 
lant  Christian,  General  Fisk,  exerted  herself  to  collect  clothing, 
money  and  supplies  for  the  Refugees,  black  and  white,  at  Pilot 
Knob,  Missouri,  and  distributed  it  to  them  in  person.  Mrs.  H. 
F.  Hoes  and  Miss  Alice  F.  Royce  of  Wisconsin,  were  very  active 
in  instructing  and  aiding  the  children  of  Refugees  at  Rolla,  Mis 
souri,  in  1864  and  1865.  Mrs.  John  S.  Phelps  established  with 
the  aid  of  a  few  other  ladies  a  school  for  the  children  of  Refugees 

90  713 


714 

at  Springfield,  Missouri,  and  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Whitaker,  an  excellent 
and  efficient  teacher,  had  charge  of  it  for  two  years. 

At  Leavenworth  and  Fort  Scott,  large  and  well  conducted 
schools  for  the  children  of  Refugees  and  Freedmen  were  estab 
lished,  and  several  teachers  employed,  one  of  them,  Mrs.  Nettie 
C.  Constant,  at  Leavenworth,  winning  a  very  high  reputation  for 
her  faithfulness  and  skill  as  a  teacher. 

The  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  the  National  Freedmen's 
Relief  Association,  Relief  Societies  in  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  elsewhere,  and  later  the  American  Union  Commission, 
were  all  engaged  in  labor  for  either  the  Freedmen  or  the  Refu 
gees  or  both. 

All  these  organizations  employed  or  supported  teachers,  and  all 
worked  in  remarkable  harmony.  At  Vicksburg  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission  sent,  in  the  spring  of  1864,  Miss  G.  D. 
Chapman  of  Exeter,  Maine,  to  take  charge  of  a  school  for  the 
children  of  Refugees,  of  whom  there  were  large  numbers  there. 
Miss  Chapman  served  very  faithfully  for  some  months,  and  then 
was  compelled  by  her  failing  health,  to  return  home.  The  Com 
mission  then  appointed  Miss  Sarah  E.  M.  Lovejoy,  daughter  of 
Hon.  Owen  Lovejoy,  to  take  charge  of  the  school.  It  soon  be 
came  one  of  the  largest  in  the  South,  and  was  conducted  with 
great  ability  by  Miss  Lovejoy  till  the  close  of  the  War. 

The  National  Freedmen's  Relief  Association  had,  at  the  same 
time,  a  school  for  Freedmen  and  the  children  of  Freedmen  there, 
and  Miss  Mary  E.  Sheffield,  a  most  faithful  and  accomplished 
teacher  from  Norwich,  Connecticut,  was  in  charge  of  it.  The 
climate,  the  Rebel  prejudices  and  the  indifference  or  covert  oppo 
sition  to  the  school  of  those  from  whom  better  things  might  have 
been  expected,  made  the  position  one  of  great  difficulty  and  re 
sponsibility;  but  Miss  Sheffield  was  fully  equal  to  the  work,  and 
continued  in  it  with  great  usefulness  until  late  in  May,  1865, 
when  finding  herself  seriously  ill  she  attempted  to  return  North, 
but  on  reaching  Memphis  was  too  ill  to  proceed  farther,  and 


OTHER  FRIENDS  OF  THE  FREEDMEN  AND  REFUGEES.   715 

died  there  on  the  5th  of  June,  1865,  a  martyr  to  her  faithful 
ness  and  zeal. 

In  Helena,  a  Refugee  Home  was  established  by  the  Western 
Sanitary  Commission,  and  Mrs.  Sarah  Coombs,  a  benevolent  and 
excellent  lady  of  that  town,  placed  in  charge  of  it.  At  Nash 
ville,  Tennessee,  the  Nashville  Refugee  Relief  Society,  under 
the  management  of  Mrs.  Mary  R.  Fogg,  established  a  Refugees' 
Home  which  was  aided  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  the 
Philadelphia  ladies,  and  other  associations.  At  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas,  was  another  Home  which  did  good  service.  But  the 
most  extensive  institution  of  this  description,  was  the  Refugee 
and  Freedmen's  Home  at  St.  Louis,  occupying  the  Lawson  Hos 
pital  in  that  city,  and  established  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Com 
mission  with  the  co-operation  of  the  Ladies'  Union  Aid  Society, 
and  the  Ladies7  Freedmen's  Relief  Association.  Mrs.  H.  M. 
Weed  was  its  efficient  matron,  and  was  supported  by  a  si»fF  of 
six  or  seven  assistants  and  teachers.  Over  three  thousand  Refu 
gees  were  received  and  aided  here  in  the  six  months  from  February 
to  July,  1865,  and  both  children  and  adults  were  taught  not  only 
elementary  studies  but  housework,  cooking  and  laundry  work; 
the  women  were  paid  moderate  wages  with  which  to  clothe  them 
selves  and  their  children,  and  were  taught  some  of  the  first  les 
sons  of  a  better  civilization.  In  the  superintendence  of  this  good 
work,  Mrs.  Alfred  Clapp,  the  President  of  the  Ladies7  Union 
Aid  Society,  Mrs.  Joseph  Crawshaw,  an  active  member  of  that 
Society,  Mrs.  Lucien  Eaton,  the  President  of  the  Ladies7  Freed- 
men's  Association,  and  Mrs.  N.  Stevens,  one  of  the  managers  of 
that  Society,  were  assiduous  and  faithful. 

There  were  great  numbers  of  other  ladies  equally  efficient  in 
the  Freedmen7s  Schools  and  Homes  in  the  Atlantic  States,  but 
their  work  was  mainly  under  the  direction  of  the  Freedrnen7s 
Relief,  and  subsequently  of  the  American  Union  Commission, 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  obtain  from  them  accounts  of  the  labors  of 
particular  individuals.  The  record  of  the  women  who  have  la- 


716  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

bored  faithfully,  and  not  a  few  of  them  to  the  loss  of  thtir  health 
or  lives  in  work  which  was  in  some  respects  even  more  repulsive 
to  the  natural  sensibilities  than  that  in  the  hospitals,  if  smaller 
in  numbers,  is  not  less  honorable  than  that  of  their  sisters  in  the 
hospitals. 


PART  V. 

LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  EOT!  SERVICES  IN  SOLDIERS'  HOMES,  VOL 
UNTEER  REFRESHMENT  SALOONS,  ON  GOVERNMENT 
HOSPITAL  TRANSPORTS,  ETC. 


MRS.  O.  E.  HOSMER. 


T  the  opening  of  the  late  war,  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
Mrs.  O.  E.  Hosmer,  was  residing  with  her  family  in 
Chicago,  Illinois.  Hers  was  by  no  means  a  vague  pa 
triotism  that  contented  itself  with  verbal  expressions 
of  sympathy  for  her  country's  cause  and  defenders.  She  believed 
that  she  had  sacrifices  to  make,  and  work  to  do,  and  could  hope 
for  no  enjoyment,  or  even  comfort,  amidst  the  luxuries  of  home, 
while  thousands  to  whom  these  things  were  as  dear  as  to  herself, 
had  resolutely  turned  away  from  them,  willing  to  perish  them 
selves,  if  the  national  life  might  be  preserved. 

Her  first  sacrifice  was  that  of  two  of  her  sons,  whom  she  gave 
to  the  service  of  the  country  in  the  army.  Then,  to  use  her  own 
words,  "feeling  a  burning  desire  to  aid  personally  in  the  work,  I 
did  not  wait  to  hear  of  sufferings  I  have  since  so  often  witnessed, 
but  determined,  as  God  had  given  me  health  and  a  good  husband 
to  provide  for  me,  to  go  forth  as  a  volunteer  and  do  whatever  my 
hands  found  to  do."  Few  perhaps  will  ever  know  to  the  full 
extent,  how  much  the  soldier  benefited  by  this  resolve. 

To  such  a  spirit,  waiting  and  ardent,  opportunities  were  not 
long  in  presenting  themselves.  Mrs.  Hosmer's  first  experiences, 
away  from  home,  were  at  Tipton,  and  Smithtown,  Missouri.  This 
was  early  in  the  winter  of  1862,  only  a  few  months  after  the 
commencement  of  the  War ;  but  as  all  will  remember  there  had 
already  been  desperate  campaigns,  and  hard  fighting  in  Missouri, 

719 


720 

and  there  were  the  usual  consequences,  devastation,  want  and  suf 
fering  to  be  met  on  all  sides. 

At  this  time  the  effects  of  that  beneficent  and  excellent  institu 
tion,  the  Northwestern  Sanitary  Commission,  had  not  been  felt 
at  all  points  where  need  existed ;  for  the  field  was  vast,  and  even 
with  the  wonderful  charities  of  the  great  Northwest,  pouring 
into  its  treasury  and  store-houses,  with  a  powerful  organization, 
and  scores  of  willing  hands  and  brains  at  command,  time  was 
necessary  to  enable  it  to  assume  that  sort  of  omnipresence  which 
afterward  caused  it  to  be  found  in  all  places  where  battles  were 
fought,  or  hospitals  erected,  or  men  suffered  from  the  casualties 
of  war,  throughout  that  great  territory. 

Mrs.  Hosmer  found  the  hospitals  at  Tipton  and  Smith  town  in 
the  worst  possible  condition,  and  the  men  suffering  for  almost 
everything  required  for  their  comfort.  This,  under  the  circum 
stances,  caused  no  surprise,  for  medical  stores  were  not  readily 
available  at  points  so  remote*.  But  Mrs.  Hosmer  had  the  pleas 
ure  of  causing  a  large  box  of  Sanitary  stores  and  comforts  to  be 
sent  them  by  the  kind  and  efficient  agent  at  St.  Louis,  which  she 
helped  to  distribute.  She  was  thus  enabled  to  leave  them  in  a 
much  more  comfortable  condition. 

On  her  return  to  Chicago,  a  number  of  influential  ladies  resid 
ing  there,  formed  an  association  to  which  the  name  of  the  "Ladies' 
War  Committee "  was  given.  Mrs.  Hosmer  was  appointed  secre 
tary  of  this  organization. 

This  association  was  very  useful  and  efficient,  and  met  daily  to 
work  for  the  soldiers,  particularly  in  making  up  garments  for  the 
Regiments  sent  out  by  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Chicago. 

When  these,  the  Eighty-eighth  and  Seventy-second  Illinois 
Regiments,  and  the  Board  of  Trade  Battery,  participated  in 
any  battle,  they  volunteered  to  go  and  look  after  the  wounded. 
The  first  volunteers  were  sent  out  upon  this  charitable  mission 
after  the  battle  of  Stone  River,  about  the  1st  of  January,  1863, 
when  two  ladies,  Mrs.  Hosmer  and  Mrs.  Smith  Tinkham  pro- 


MRS.  O.  E.  HOSMER.  721 

ceccled  to  Murfreesboro,  Tennessee,  with  a  large  quantity  of  sup 
plies.  They  remained  there,  in  constant  and  unwearied  attend 
ance  upon  the  large  number  of  wounded  from  this  important 
battle,  for  nine  or  ten  weeks. 

The  writer  of  this  sketch  was  at  that  time  in  Chicago,  and 
well  remembers  the  return  of  these  ladies  from  this  errand  of 
mercy,  and  the  simple  pathos  of  the  report  they  then  made,  to 
the  Board  of  Trade,  of  their  work  and  their  stewardship  of  the 
funds  entrusted  to  them  by  that  body  for  the  expenses  of  the  ex 
pedition,  and  the  use  of  the  wounded. 

As  these  ladies  were  the  first  volunteers  upon  the  ground,  they 
were  warmly  welcomed  by  the  medical  director  and  surgeons, 
and  their  services  at  once  rendered  available  both  in  the  prepa 
ration  of  delicacies  for  the  sufferers,  and  in  personal  attendance 
upon  them.  Here  Mrs.  Hosmer  met  with  a  most  singular  and 
touching  incident.  A  soldier  who  had  been  wounded  in  the  leg, 
and  taken  prisoner,  had  his  leg  amputated  by  a  Rebel  surgeon. 
He  was  afterwards  recaptured,  and  being  found  in  a  dreadful 
and  dangerous  condition,  had  to  suffer  a  second  amputation.  It 
was  only  by  the  closest  and  best  of  care  that  there  remained  a 
possibility  that  his  life  might  be  saved;  and  this  the  surgeon  in 
charge  requested  of  Mrs.  Hosmer. 

On  approaching  his  bed,  Mrs.  Hosmer  was  almost  painfully 
struck  by  his  strong  resemblance  to  one  of  her  sons,  while  he 
was  at  the  same  instant,  bewildered  and  excited  by  discovering  in 
her  an  equally  strong  likeness  to  the  mother  he  was  never  to  see 
again. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  accidental  likeness  caused  a 
strong  bond  of  feeling  between  those  till  that  moment  utter 
strangers.  The  soldier  begged  to  be  allowed  to  call  the  lady 
mother,  and  she  was  only  too  glad  to  minister  to  him  as  she 
hoped  some  kind  soul  might  do  to  the  son  he  resembled,  should 
an  hour  of  need  occur.  She  found  him  to  be  an  educated  and 
intelligent  young  man.  She  did  for  him  all  she  could,  and 

91 


722 

watched  and  tended  him  with  real  devotion,  but  in  vain.  It 
was  found  impossible  to  save  him ;  and  when  he  was  gone,  she 
performed  the  last  of  her  sad  offices,  by  cutting  from  above  his 
brow  a  mass  of  clustering,  raven  curls,  which  she  enclosed  in  a 
letter  to  his  mother,  telling  her  all  she  knew  of  her  boy's 
bravery,  and  his  fate. 

These  days  at  Murfreesboro  were  days  of  hard  labor,  but  of 
great  satisfaction.  There  had  been  more  than  five  thousand  men 
in  hospital,  but  these  were  thinned  out  by  deaths,  convalescence, 
etc.,  until  but  few  remained.  Then  Mrs.  Hosmer  and  her  friend 
returned  to  their  home. 

The  following  summer  that  admirable  and  most  useful  insti 
tution,  the  "Soldiers'  Home/7  was  established  in  Chicago,  and 
Mrs.  Hosmer  was  appointed  first  vice-president. 

This  "Home"  occupied  much  of  her  time  for  the  following 
year.  In  connection  with  this  was  the  Soldiers7  Rest,  where 
hundreds,  and  sometimes  thousands  of  men,  in  transitu,  were 
furnished  with  good  warm  meals,  and  with  lodging  for  the  sick, 
to  the  extent  of  its  accommodations.  This  was  entirely  sustained 
and  carried  on  by  the  ladies  of  Chicago,  and  Mrs.  Hosmer  often 
passed  entire  days  and  nights  there,  in  these  labors  of  love. 

After  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  she  again  felt  it  a  duty  and 
privilege  to  proceed  to  the  field,  on  a  mission  of  mercy.  Her 
friend,  Mrs.  Tinkham,  again  accompanied  her.  As  they  neared 
Chattanooga,  they  were  unfortunately  taken  prisoners.  They 
suffered  much  fatigue,  and  many  privations,  but  no  other  ill- 
treatment,  though  they  wrere,  a  part  of  the  time,  in  great  danger 
from  the  shells  which  were  exploding  all  about  them.  They 
were  however  soon  recaptured,  and  proceeded  on  their  way. 

Having  lost  their  supplies,  however,  they  found  they  could  be 
of  little  service.  Provisions  were  very  scarce,  as  in  fact  were  all 
necessaries,  both  for  the  wounded  and  well.  Therefore,  being 
provided  with  an  escort,  they  slowly  retraced  their  way,  and, 
after  a  disastrous  and  fatiguing  journey,  arrived  in  Chicago,  com- 


MRS.  O.  E.  HOSMER.  723 

pletely  worn  and  exhausted,  and  without  the  cheering  influence 
of  the  consciousness  of  having  accomplished  much  good  by  their 
efforts. 

From  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  occasional  trips  to  Cairo, 
to  look  after  the  sick  and  wounded  there,  Mrs.  Hosmer  remained 
in  Chicago,  laboring  for  the  soldiers  at  the  "Home"  and  "Rest," 
until  the  close  of  the  year,  1864.  The  "Northwestern  Sanitary 
and  Soldiers'  Home  Fair,"  was  then  in  contemplation,  and  was 
to  take  place  in  June,  1865.  Mrs.  Hosmer  had  been  appointed 
one  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
the  organization,  which  had  the  mammoth  fair  in  charge. 

In  pursuance  of  the  objects  in  view,  she  then  went  down  the 
Mississippi  River,  to  solicit  donations  of  money  and  articles  for 
the  fair.  Thinking  she  could  materially  aid  the  object,  by  visit 
ing  hospitals,  and  giving  her  testimony  that  supplies  were  still 
needed,  she  paid  particular  attention  to  this  part  of  her  duty,  and 
visited  nearly  every  hospital  from  Cairo  to  New  Orleans.  She 
had  the  satisfaction  of  raising  about  five  thousand  dollars  in 
money  for  the  fair,  besides  obtaining  a  variety  and  large  amount 
of  valuable  articles  for  sale.  She  also  had  the  pleasure  of  caus 
ing  supplies  to  be  sent,  at  that  time,  to  points  where  they  were 
much  needed. 

She  was  at  Yicksburg  when  five  thousand  emaciated  wrecks 
of  manhood  from  the  prisons  of  Andersonville  and  Catawba, 
were  brought  thither  to  be  exchanged,  and  often  visited  their 
camp  and  aided  in  distributing  the  supplies  so  greatly  needed. 

Many  a  time  her  kind  heart  was  bursting  with  pain  and  sym 
pathy  for  these  suffering  men,  many  of  whom  had  been  tortured 
and  starved  till  already  beyond  the  reach  of  help.  But  she  was 
to  see  still  greater  horrors,  when,  as  the  culmination  of  their  fate, 
the  steamer  Sultana,  on  which  their  homeward  passage  was  taken, 
exploded,  and,  she,  being  near,  beheld  hundreds  who  had  escaped 
the  sufferings  of  the  prison  pens,  drawn  from  the  water,  dying  or 


724  WOMAN'S  WOKK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

dead,  drowned  or  scalded,  in  that  awful  accident.     As  she  says, 
herself,  her  heart  was  nearly  broken  by  this  dreadful  sight. 

Mrs.  Hosmer  returned  to  Chicago,  and  did  not  cease  her  labors 
until  the  Soldiers'  Rest  was  closed,  and  the  war  ended.  For 
about  four  years  she  gave  untiring  devotion  to  the  cause,  and  few 
have  accomplished  more  real,  earnest  and  persistent  service. 
Since  the  close  of  the  war,  Mrs.  Hosmer  has  become  a  resident 
of  New  York,  though  she  is,  at  this  present  writing,  established 
at  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  in  charge  of  a  sick  son,  who  seeks  the 
recovery  of  his  health  in  that  bracing  climate. 


MISS  HATTIE  WISWALL. 


ISS  HATTIE  WISWALL  entered  the  service  as 
Hospital  Nurse,  May  1,  1863.  For  the  first  five  or 
six  months  she  was  employed  in  the  Benton  Barracks 
Hospital  at  St.  Louis.  At  that  time  the  suffering  of 
our  boys  in  Missouri  was  very  great,  and  all  through  that  sum 
mer  the  hospitals  of  St.  Louis  were  crowded  to  overflowing. 
From  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  were  lying  in  Benton  Bar 
racks  alone.  Men,  wounded  in  every  conceivable  manner,  were 
frequently  arriving  from  the  battle-fields,  and  our  friend  went 
through  the  same  experience  to  which  so  many  brave  women, 
fresh  from  the  quiet  and  happy  scenes  of  their  peaceful  homes, 
have  been  willing  to  subject  themselves  for  the  sake  of  humanity. 
Sensitive  and  delicate  though  she  was,  she  acquired  here,  by  con 
stant  attention  to  her  duties,  a  coolness  in  the  presence  of  appal 
ling  sights  that  we  have  rarely  seen  equaled  even  in  the  stronger 
sex,  and  which,  when  united  with  a  tender  sympathy,  as  in  her 
case,  makes  the  model  nurse.  The  feeling  of  horror  which 
shrinks  from  the  sight  of  agony  and  vents  itself  in  vapid  excla 
mations,  she  rightly  deemed  had  no  place  in  the  character  of  one 
who  proposes  to  do  anything.  So  putting  this  aside  she  learned 
to  be  happy  in  the  hospital,  and  consequently  made  others  happy. 
Never  in  our  observation  has  this  first  condition  of  success  in 
nursing  been  so  completely  met.  It  became  so  intense  a  satisfac 
tion  to  her  to  lessen,  in  ever  so  slight  a  degree,  the  misery  of  a 
sick  or  wounded  soldier  that  the  horror  of  the  case  seemed  never 

725 


726  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

to  occur  to  her.  It  was  often  remarked  that  "  Miss  Hattie  was 
never  quite  so  happy  as  when  administering  medicine  or  dressing 
a  wound." 

From  Benton  Barracks  she  was  ordered  in  the  autumn  of  1863 
to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  where  she  remained  a  short  time  and 
was  then  ordered  to  Vicksburg,  Mississippi,  to  assist  in  conducting 
a  Soldiers'  Home.  Here  she  remained  until  the  close  of  the  war. 
How  faithfully  she  discharged  her  duties,  first  as  assistant  and 
then  as  principal  Matron,  the  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand 
guests  who  were  entertained  there  during  her  stay  know,  and  the 
living  can  testify.  Her  position  for  much  of  the  time  was  an 
extremely  responsible  and  laborious  one,  the  capacities  of  the 
Home  being  sometimes  extended  to  the  accommodation  of  six 
hundred  men,  and  averaging,  for  nearly  the  whole  period  of  her 
stay,  two  hundred  daily.  The  multiplicity  of  duties  in  the  charge 
of  the  household  affairs  of  such  an  institution,  with  the  uncer 
tain  assistance  to  be  found  in  such  a  place,  may  be  better  imag 
ined  than  told.  Under  her  satisfactory  management  the  Vicks- 
burg  Home  acquired  an  enviable  reputation,  and  was  the  favorite 
stopping-place  on  the  river.  The  great  difficulty  in  conducting  a 
Soldiers'  Home  in  time  of  war,  as  every  one  knows  who  has  been 
connected  with  one,  is  to  keep  it  neat  and  clean,  to  have  the  floors, 
the  tables,  the  beds  sufficiently  respectable  to  remind  the  soldier 
of  the  home  he  has  left.  Nothing  but  ceaseless  vigilance  could 
do  this  at  Vicksburg,  as  men  were  constantly  arriving  from  filthy 
camps,  and  still  filthier  prisons,  covered  not  with  greenbacks  but 
with  what  was  known  there  as  the  rebel  "currency."  But  on 
any  one  of  the  hundreds  of  beds  that  filled  the  dormitories  of 
this  Home  our  most  fastidious  reader  could  have  slept  in  peace 
and  safety ;  and,  but  for  the  fact  that  the  bill  of  fare  was  mostly 
limited  to  the  army  ration,  could  have  set  down  at  any  of  the 
tables  and  enjoyed  a  meal. 

The  good  work  of  Miss  Wiswall  in  Vicksburg  was  not  con 
fined  to  the  Soldiers'  Home.  She  did  not  forget  the  freedmen, 


MISS    HATTIE   WISWALL.  727 

but  was  true  to  the  teachings  of  her  uncles,  the  great  and  good 
Lovejoys.  Of  the  sufferings  of  these  poor  people  she  had  oppor 
tunity  to  see  much,  and  often  did  her  sympathies  lead  her  beyond 
the  sphere  of  her  ordinary  duties,  to  carry  food  and  clothing  and 
medicine  to  such  as  were  ready  to  perish. 

In  these  charities,  which  were  extended  also  to  the  white  refu 
gees,  Miss  Wiswall  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  direct  line  of  her 
duty,  the  work  she  had  set  out  to  do.  The  needs  of  the  loyal 
soldier  took  precedence  in  her  mind  of  all  others.  No  service  so 
delighted  her  as  this,  and  to  none  was  she  so  well  fitted. 

We  remember  after  the  calamitous  Red  River  expedition,  boat 
load  after  boat-load  of  the  wounded  were  sent  up  to  Yicksburg. 
As  soon  as  they  touched  the  shore,  our  friend  and  her  compan 
ions  met  the  poor  fellows  stretched  upon  the  decks  and  scattered 
through  the  cabins  and  around  the  engines,  with  words  of  wo 
manly  cheer,  and  brought  the  delicacies  and  refreshments  pre 
pared  by  thoughtful  hands  at  home.  Many  a  brave  man  will 
remember  to  his  dying  day  how  he  shed  tears  of  joy  at  sight  of 
the  first  true  Northern  woman's  face  that  met  him  after  that  toil 
some,  disastrous  march. 

At  length  a  boat-load  of  the  severely  wounded  were  about  to 
be  sent  up  the  river  to  Northern  hospitals,  or  on  furlough  to  go 
to  their  homes.  The  surgeon  in  charge  desired  the  aid  of  a  com 
petent  lady  assistant;  and  Miss  Wiswall  obtained  temporary 
leave  of  absence  to  accompany  him  and  help  take  care  of  the  suf 
ferers.  Her  influence,  we  were  told,  was  inspiriting  to  all  on 
board.  She  was  once  more  in  hospital  and  entirely  at  home.  At 
Cairo,  where  a  portion  of  the  wounded  were  discharged,  she  took 
charge  of  an  officer,  whose  limb  had  been  amputated,  and  saw 
him  safely  to  his  home  in  Elgin,  Illinois.  Making  her  friends 
in  Chicago  a  brief  visit,  she  returned  to  her  duties  at  Vicksburg, 
where  she  remained  until,  with  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Soldiers' 
Home  was  discontinued  about  the  1st  of  June,  1865. 


MRS.    LUCY    E.    STARR. 


an  early  period  of  the  civil  war  this  heroic  woman 
left  her  home  at  Griggsville,  Illinois,  came  to  St.  Louis 
and  offered  her  services  to  the  Western  Sanitary  Com 
mission  as  a  nurse  in  the  hospitals.  She  was  already 
known  as  a  person  of  excellent  Christian  character,  of  education 
and  refinement,  of  real  practical  ability,  the  widow  of  a  deceased 
clergyman,  and  full  of  the  spirit  of  kindness  and  patriotic  sym 
pathy  towards  our  brave  soldiers  in  the  field.  Her  services  were 
gladly  accepted,  and  she  entered  at  once  upon  her  duties  as  a 
nurse  in  the  Fifth  Street  Hospital  at  St.  Louis,  which  was  in 
charge  of  the  excellent  Dr.  John  T.  Hodgen,  an  eminent  surgeon 
of  that  city. 

For  nearly  two  years  Mrs.  Starr  served  as  nurse  in  this  hospi 
tal,  having  charge  of  one  of  the  special  diet  kitchens,  and  minis 
tering  with  her  own  hands  to  the  sick  and  wounded  inmates.  In 
these  services  the  great  kindness  of  her  manners,  the  cheerful  and 
hopeful  spirit  that  animated  her,  the  words  of  sympathy  and  en 
couragement  she  gave  her  patients,  and  the  efficiency  and  excel 
lence  of  everything  she  did  won  for  her  a  large  measure  of  esteem 
and  confidence,  and  made  her  a  favorite  nurse  with  the  authori 
ties  of  the  hospital,  and  with  the  sick  and  wounded,  who  received 
her  ministrations  and  care.  Small  in  stature,  it  was  wonderful 
how  much  labor  she  was  able  to  accomplish,  and  how  she  was 
sustained  by  a  soul  full  of  noble  purposes  and  undoubting  faith. 
In  the  autumn  of  1863  Mrs.  Starr  was  needed  by  the  Western 

728 


MRS.  LUCY    E.  STARR.  729 

Sanitary  Commission  to  take  the  position  of  Matron  of  the  Sol 
diers'  Home  at  Memphis,  to  have  charge  of  the  domestic  arrange 
ments  of  the  institution,  and  to  extend  a  true  hospitality  to  the 
many  invalid  soldiers  going  on  furlough  to  their  homes  or  return 
ing  to  the  hospitals,  or  to  their  regiments,  passing  through  Mem 
phis  on  their  way.  The  number  thus  entertained  sometimes 
reached  as  high  as  three  hundred  and  fifty  in  one  day.  The  av 
erage  daily  number  for  two  years  and  a  half  was  one  hundred  and 
six.  When  the  Home  was  first  opened,  and  before  it  was  much 
known,  the  first  guests  were  brought  in  by  Mrs.  Governor  Har 
vey,  of  Wisconsin,  who  found  them  wandering  in  the  streets, 
sadly  in  need  of  a  kind  friend  to  give  them  assistance  and  care. 
Sometimes  the  Superintendent,  Mr.  O.  E.  Waters,  would  have 
from  twenty  to  thirty  discharged,  furloughed  and  invalid  soldiers 
to  aid,  in  collecting  their  pay,  procuring  transportation,  many  of 
whom  he  found  lying  on  the  hard  pavements  in  the  streets  and 
on  the  bluff  near  the  steamboat  landing,  in  a  helpless  condition, 
with  no  friend  to  assist  them.  The  object  of  the  Soldiers'  Home 
was  to  take  care  of  such,  give  them  food  and  lodging  without 
charge,  make  them  welcome  while  they  stayed,  and  send  them 
rejoicing  on  their  way. 

In  the  internal  management  of  this  institution,  and  in  the  kind 
hospitality  extended  to  the  soldiers  Mrs.  Starr  was  doing  a  con 
genial  work.  For  two  years  she  filled  this  position  with  great 
fidelity  and  success,  and  to  the  highest  satisfaction  of  those  who 
placed  her  here,  and  of  all  who  were  the  guests  of  the  Home. 
At  the  end  of  this  service,  on  the  closing  of  the  Home,  the  Su 
perintendent  in  his  final  report  to  the  Western  Sanitary  Commis 
sion,  makes  this  acknowledgment  of  her  services : 

"It  would  not  only  be  improper  but  unjust,  not  to  speak  of 
the  faithfulness  and  hearty  co-operation  of  the  excellent  and  much 
esteemed  Matron,  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Starr.  Her  mission  has  been 
full  of  trials  and  discouragements,  yet  she  has  patiently  and  un 
complainingly  struggled  through  them  all;  and  during  my  fre- 
92 


730 

quent  absences  she  has  cheerfully  assumed  the  entire  responsibility 
of  the  Home.  Her  Christian  forbearance  and  deep  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  humanity  have  won  the  admiration  of  all  who  have 
come  within  the  sphere  of  her  labors." 

On  the  closing  of  the  Soldiers'  Home,  Mrs.  Starr  became  con 
nected  with  an  institution  for  the  care  of  suffering  refugees  and 
freedmen  at  Memphis,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Freedmen's 
Aid  Commission  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  She  took  a  great  interest 
in  the  thousands  of  this  class  of  destitute  people  who  had  con 
gregated  in  the  vicinity  of  Memphis;  visited  them  for  weeks 
almost  daily;  and  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Waters'  report,  "ad 
ministered  to  the  sick  with  her  own  hands,  going  from  pallet  to 
pallet,  giving  nourishing  food  and  medicines  to  many  helpless  and 
friendless  beings." 

Thus  she  continued  to  be  a  worker  for  the  suffering  soldiers  of 
the  Union  army  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  war,  and 
when  peace  had  come,  devoted  herself  to  the  poor  and  suffering 
refugees  and  freedmen,  whom  the  war  had  driven  from  their 
homes  and  reduced  to  misery  and  want.  With  a  wonderful  forti 
tude,  endurance  and  heroism  she  persevered  in  her  faithfulness  to 
the  end,  and  through  the  future  of  her  life  on  earth  and  in  heaven, 
those  whom  she  has  comforted  and  relieved  of  their  sorrows  and 
distresses  will  constitute  for  her  a  crown  of  rejoicing,  and  their 
tears  of  gratitude  will  be  the  brightest  jewels  in  her  diadem. 


CHARLOTTE    BRADFORD. 


HIS  lady,  like  her  friend,  Miss  Abby  W.  May,  of 
Boston,  though  a  woman  of  extraordinary  attainments 
and  culture,  and  an  earnest  outspoken  advoeate  of  the 
immediate  abolition  of  slavery  before  the  War,  is  ex 
tremely  averse  to  any  mention  of  her  labors  in  behalf  of  the 
soldiers,  alleging  that  they  were  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
the  sacrifices  of  those  humbler  and  unnamed  heroines,  who  in 
their  country  homes,  toiled  so  incessantly  for  the  boys  in  blue. 
We  have  no  desire  to  detract  one  iota  of  the  honors  justly  due  to 
these  noble  and  self-sacrificing  women;  but  when  one  is  called  to 
a  position  of  more  prominent  usefulness  than  others,  and  performs 
her  duties  with  great  ability,  system  and  perseverance,  though  her 
merits  may  be  no  greater  than  those  of  humbler  and  more  obscure 
persons,  yet  the  public  position  which  she  assumes,  renders  her 
service  so  far  public  property,  that  she  cannot  with  justice,  refuse 
to  accept  the  consequences  of  such  public  action  or  the  sacrifices 
it  entails.  Holding  this  opinion  we  deem  it  a  part  of  our  duty 
to  speak  of  Miss  Bradford's  public  and  official  life.  With  her 
motives  and  private  feelings  we  have  no  right  to  meddle. 

So  far  as  we  can  learn,  Miss  Bradford's  first  public  service  in 
connection  with  the  Sanitary  Commission,  was  in  the  Hospital 
Transport  Corps  in  the  waters  of  the  Peninsula,  in  1862.  Here 
she  was  one  of  the  ladies  in  charge  of  the  Elm  City,  and  after 
ward  of  the  Knickerbocker,  having  as  associates  Mrs.  Bailey, 

731 


732 

Miss  Helen  L.  Gilson,  Miss  Amy  M.  Bradley,  Mrs.  Balestier, 
Miss  Gardner  and  others. 

Miss  Bradley  was  presently  called  to  Washington  by  the  offi 
cers  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  to  take  charge  of  the  Soldiers7 
Home  then  being  established  there,  and  Miss  Bradford  busied 
herself  in  other  Relief  work.  In  February  following,  Miss 
Bradley  relinquished  her  position  as  Matron  of  the  Home,  to 
enter  upon  her  great  work  of  reforming  and  improving  the  Ren 
dezvous  of  Distribution,  which  under  the  name  of  "Camp  Mis 
ery,"  had  long  been  the  opprobrium  of  the  War  Department,  and 
Miss  Bradford  was  called  to  succeed  her  in  charge  of  the  Soldiers' 

O 

Home  at  Washington.  Of  the  efficiency  and  beneficence  of  her 
administration  here  for  two  and  a  half  years  there  is  ample  testi 
mony.  Thoroughly  refined  and  ladylike  in  her  manners,  there 
was  a  quiet  dignity  about  her  which  controlled  the  wayward  and 
won  the  respect  of  all.  Her  executive  ability  and  administrative 
skill  were  such,  that  throughout  the  realm  where  she  presided, 
everything  moved  with  the  precision  and  quietness  of  the  most 
perfect  machinery.  There  was  no  hurry,  no  bustle,  no  display, 
but  everything  was  done  in  time  and  well  done.  To  thousands 
of  the  soldiers  just  recovering  from  sickness  or  wounds,  feeble  and 
sometimes  almost  disheartened,  she  spoke  words  of  cheer,  and  by 
her  tender  and  kind  sympathy,  encouraged  and  strengthened  them 
for  the  battle  of  life;  and  in  all  her  intercourse  with  them  she 
proved  herself  their  true  and  sympathizing  friend. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  Miss  Bradford  returned  to  private 
life  at  her  home  in  Duxbury,  Massachusetts. 


UNION  VOLUNTEER   REFRESHMENT 
SALOON   OF   PHILADELPHIA. 


E  have  already  in  our  sketch  of  the  labors  of  Mrs. 
Mary  "W.  Lee,  one  of  the  most  efficient  workers  for 
the  soldiers  in  every  position  in  which  she  was  placed, 
given  some  account  of  this  institution,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  philanthropic  organizations  called  into  being  by  the 
War,  as  in  the  sketch  of  Miss  Anna  M.  Ross  we  have  made  some 
allusions  to  the  Cooper  Shop  Refreshment  Saloon,  its  rival  in 
deeds  of  charity  and  love  for  the  soldier.  The  vast  extent,  the 
wonderful  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  persevering  patience  and 
fidelity  in  which  these  labors  were  performed,  demand,  however, 
a  more  than  incidental  notice  in  a  record  like  this. 

'No  philanthropic  work  during  the  war  was  more  thoroughly 
free  from  self-seeking,  or  prompted  by  a  higher  or  nobler  impulse 
than  that  of  these  Refreshment  Saloons.  Beginning  in  the  very 
first  movements  of  troops  in  the  patriotic  feeling  which  led  a  poor 
man  *  to  establish  his  coffee  boilers  on  the  sidewalk  to  give  a  cup 
of  hot  coffee  to  the  soldiers  as  they  waited  for  the  train  to  take 
them  on  to  Washington,  and  in  the  generous  impulses  of  women 
in  humble  life  to  furnish  such  food  as  they  could  provide  for  the 
soldier  boys,  it  grew  to  be  a  gigantic  enterprise  in  its  results,  and 
the  humble  commencement  ere  long  developed  into  two  rival  but 
not  hostile  organizations,  each  zealous  to  do  the  most  for  the  de- 


*  Mr.  Bazilla  S.  Brown. 

733 


734  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

fenders  of  their  country.  Very  early  in  the  movement  some  men 
of  larger  means  and  equally  earnest  sympathies  were  attracted  to 
it,  and  one  of  them,  a  thorough  patriot,  Samuel  B.  Fales,  Esq., 
gave  himself  wholly  to  it  for  four  and  a  half  years.  The  interest 
of  the  community  was  excited  also  in  the  labors  of  these  humble 
men  and  women,  and  the  enterprise  seldom  lacked  for  funds;  the 
zealous  and  earnest  Chairman,  Mr.  Arad  Barrows,  and  Correspond 
ing  Secretary,  Mr.  Fales,  of  the  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment  Sa 
loon,  took  good  care  of  that  part  of  the  work,  and  Mr.  W.  M.  Cooper 
and  his  associates  did  the  same  for  the  Cooper  Shop  Saloon. 

Ample  provision  was  made  to  give  the  regiments  the  benefit  of 
a  bath  and  an  ample  repast  at  whatever  hour  of  day  or  night 
they  might  come  into  the  city.  In  the  four  and  a  half  years  of 
.their  labors,  the  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon  fed  between  eight 
hundred  thousand  and  nine  hundred  thousand  soldiers  and  ex 
pended  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  money,  aside  from 
supplies.  The  Cooper  Shop  Saloon,  closing  a  little  earlier,  fed 
about  four  hundred  thousand  men  and  expended  nearly  seventy 
thousand  dollars.  Both  Saloons  had  hospitals  attached  to  them 
for  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  The  Union  Volunteer  Refresh 
ment  Saloon  had,  during  the  war,  nearly  fifteen  thousand  patients, 
the  Cooper  Shop,  perhaps  half  that  number. 

But  noble  and  patriotic  as  were  the  labors  of  the  men  connected 
with  these  Saloons,  they  were  less  deserving  of  the  highest  meed 
of  praise  than  those  of  the  women  who,  with  a  patience  and  fidel 
ity  which  has  never  been  surpassed,  winter  and  summer,  in  cold 
and  heat,  at  all  hours  of  night  as  well  as  in  the  day,  at  the  boom 
of  the  signal  gun,  hastened  to  the  Refreshment  Saloons  and  pre 
pared  those  ample  repasts  which  made  Philadelphia  the  Mecca  to 
which  every  soldier  turned  longingly  during  his  years  of  Army 
life.  These  women  were  for  the  most  part  in  the  middle  and 
humbler  walks  of  life;  they  were  accustomed  to  care  for  their  own 
households,  and  do  their  own  work;  and  it  required  no  small  de 
gree  of  self-denial  and  patriotic  zeal  on  their  part,  after  a  day  of 


VOLUNTEER  REFRESHMENT  SALOON  OF  PHILADELPHIA.      735 

the  housekeeper's  never  ending  toil,  to  rise  from  their  beds  at 
midnight  (for  the  trains  bringing  soldiers  came  oftener  at  night 
than  in  the  day  time),  and  go  through  the  darkness  or  storm,  a 
considerable  distance,  and  toil  until  after  sunrise  at  the  prosaic 
work  of  cooking  and  dish-washing. 

Of  some  of  these  noble  women  we  have  the  material  for  brief 
sketches,  and  we  know  of  none  more  deserving  a  place  in  our 
record. 

MRS.  ELIZA  G.  PLUMMER  was  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  of 
revolutionary  stock,  born  in  1812,  and  had  been  a  widow  for 
nearly  twenty-five  years.  Though  possessed  of  but  little  prop 
erty,  she  had  for  many  years  been  the  friend  and  helper  of  the 
poor,  attending  them  in  sickness,  and  from  her  scanty  purse  and 
by  her  exertions,  securing  to  them  a  decent  and  respectable  Chris 
tian  burial  when  they  were  called  to  die.  At  the  very  commence 
ment  of  the  War,  she  entered  into  the  Refreshment  Saloon  enter 
prise  with  a  zeal  and  perseverance  that  never  flagged.  She  was 
particularly  devoted  to  the  hospital,  and  when  the  accommodations 
of  the  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloon  Hospital  were  too 
limited  for  the  number  who  needed  relief,  as  was  the  case  in  1862, 
she  received  a  considerable  number  of  the  worst  cases  of  sick  or 
wounded  soldiers  into  her  own  house,  and  nursed  them  without 
any  compensation  till  they  recovered.  At  the  second  fair  held 
by  the  Saloon  in  June,  1863,  she  was  instant  in  season  and  out 
of  season,  feeding  the  soldiers  as  well  as  attending  the  fair;  and 
often  remaining  at  her  post  till  long  after  midnight.  In  July 
and  August,  1863,  she  was  constantly  engaged  in  nursing  the 
wounded  from  Gettysburg,  who  crowded  the  Saloon  Hospitals  for 
some  time,  and  in  supplying  the  needs  of  the  poor  fellows  who 
passed  through  in  the  Hospital  Cars  on  their  way  to  Northern 
hospitals.  For  these  she  provided  tea  and  toast  always,  having 
everything  ready  immediately  on  their  arrival.  These  excessive 
labors  impaired  her  health,  and  being  called  to  nurse  her  aged 
blind  mother  during  a  severe  fit  of  sickness,  her  strength  failed 


736  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  AVAR. 

and  she  sank  rapidly,  and  died  on  the  21st  of  October,  1863. 
The  soldier  has  lost  no  more  earnest  or  faithful  friend  than  she. 

MRS.  MARY  B.  WADE,  a  widow  and  now  nearly  eighty  years 
of  age,  but  a  woman  of  remarkable  energy  and  perseverance,  was 
throughout  the  whole  four  and  a  half  years,  as  constantly  at  her 
post,  as  faithful  and  as  efficient  as  any  of  the  Executive  Commit 
tee  of  the  Saloon.  Suffering  from  slight  lameness,  she  literally 
hobbled  down  to  the  Saloon  with  a  cane,  by  night  or  day;  but 
she  was  never  absent.  Her  kind,  winning  and  motherly  ways 
made  her  always  a  great  favorite  with  the  soldiers,  who  always 
called  her  Mother  Wade.  She  is  a  woman  of  rare  conscientious 
ness,  truthfulness  and  amiability  of  character.  She  is  a  native 
of  South wark,  Philadelphia,  and  the  widow  of  a  sea-captain. 

MRS.  ELLEN  J.  LOWRY,  a  widow  upwards  of  fifty  years 
of  age,  a  native  of  Baltimore,  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  War  a 
woman  of  large  and  powerful  frame,  and  was  surpassed  by  none 
in  faithfulness  and  efficiency,  but  her  labors  among  the  wounded 
from  Gettysburg  seriously  injured  her  health,  and  have  rendered 
her,  probably  a  permanent  invalid;  she  suffered  severely  from 
typhoid  fever,  and  her  life  was  in  peril  in  the  summer  of  1864. 

MRS.  MARGARET  BOYER,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  the  wife 
of  a  sea-captain,  but  in  very  humble  circumstances,  and  advanced 
in  years,  was  also  one  of  the  faithful  untiring  workers  of  the 
Union  Saloon,  but  like  Mrs.  Lowry,  lost  her  health  by  her  care 
of  the  Gettysburg  wounded,  and  those  from  the  great  battles  of 
Grant's  Campaign. 

MRS.  PRISCILLA  GROVER  and  MRS.  GREEN,  both  women  about 
sixty  years  of  age,  were  constant  in  their  attendance  and  re 
markably  faithful  in  their  services  at  the  Saloon.  Our  record  of 
these  remarkable  women  of  advanced  age  would  be  incomplete 
did  we  omit  MRS.  MARY  GROVER,  MRS.  HANNAH  SMITH,  MRS. 
SARAH  FEMINGTON  and  Miss  SARAH  HOLLAND,  all  noble,  per 
severing  and  efficient  nurses,  and  strongly  attached  to  their  work. 
2s  or  were  the  younger  women  lacking  in  skill,  patience  or  activ- 


MES.  R.  M.  BIGELOW.  739 

freely  sacrified  for  the  relief  of  our  poor  returned  prisoners  from 
Anderson  ville,  as  related  in  our  sketch  of  the  Annapolis  Hospital 
Corps, — was  the  co-laborer  of  her  kinswoman  in  these  labors  of 
love.  Both  were  indefatigable  in  their  labors  for  the  sick  soldiers ; 
both  knew  how  to  make  "that  bread  which  tasted  exactly  like 
mother's"  to  the  convalescent  soldier,  whose  feeble  appetite  was 
not  easily  tempted ;  and  both  opened  their  houses,  as  well  as  their 
hearts  to  these  poor  suffering  invalids,  and  many  is  the  soldier 
who  could  and  did  say :  "  I  don't  know  what  would  have  become 
of  me  if  I  had  not  met  with  such  good  friends." 

Mrs.  Bigelow  became,  ere  long,  the  almoner  of  the  bounty  of 
many  Aid  Societies  at  the  North,  and  vast  quantities  of  supplies 
passed  through  her  hands,  to  the  patients  of  the  hospitals ;  and 
they  were  always  judiciously  distributed.  She  not  only  kept  up 
a  constant  correspondence  with  these  societies,  but  wrote  regularly 
to  the  soldier-boys  who  had  been  under  her  care,  after  they  re 
turned  to  their  regiments,  and  thus  retained  her  influence  over 
them,  and  made  them  feel  that  somebody  cared  for  them,  even 
when  they  were  away  from  all  other  home  influences. 

Besides  these  labors,  which  were  seemingly  sufficient  to  occupy 
her  entire  time,  she  visited  continually  the  hospitals  about  the 
city,  and  always  found  room  in  her  house  for  any  sick  one,  who 
came  to  her  begging  that  he  might  "come  home,"  rather  than 
go  to  a  boarding-house  or  to  a  hospital.  Three  young  officers, 
who  came  to  her  with  this  plea,  were  received  and  watched  over 
till  death  relieved  them  of  their  sufferings,  and  cared  for  as  ten 
derly  as  they  could  have  been  in  their  own  homes ;  and  those  who 
came  thither  were  nursed  and  tended  till  their  recovery  were 
numbered  by  scores. 

To  all  the  hospital  workers  from  abroad,  and  the  number  was 
not  few,  her  house  was  always  a  home.  There  was  some  unap 
propriated  room  or  some  spare  bed  in  which  they  could  be  accom 
modated,  and  they  were  welcome  for  the  sake  of  the  cause  for 
which  they  were  laboring.  Had  she  possessed  an  ample  fortune, 


740 

this  kindness,  though  honorable,  might  not  have  been  so  note 
worthy,  but  her  house  was  small  and  her  means  far  from  ample. 
In  the  midst  of  these  abundant  labors  for  the  soldiers,  she  was 
called  to  pass  through  deep  affliction,  in  the  illness  and  death  of 
her  husband ;  but  she  suffered  no  personal  sorrow  to  so  absorb 
her  interest  as  to  make  her  unmindful  of  her  dear  hospital  and 
home-work  for  the  soldiers.  This  was  continued  unfalteringly  as 
long  as  there  was  occasion  for  it. 

Few,  if  any,  of  the  "  Women  of  the  War/7  have  been  or  have 
deserved  to  be,  more  generally  beloved  by  the  soldiers  and  by  all 
true  hospital-workers  than  Mrs.  Bigelow. 


MISS    SHARPLESS  AND    ASSOCIATES. 


HAT  the  Hospital  Transport  service  was  under  the 
management  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  we  have  else 
where  detailed,  and  have  also  given  some  glimpses  of 
its  chaotic  confusion,  its  disorder  and  wretchedness  un 
der  the  management  of  government  officials,  early  in  the  war. 
Under  the  efficient  direction  of  Surgeon  -  General  Hammond, 
and  his  successor,  Surgeon-General  Barnes,  there  was  a  material 
improvement ;  and  in  the  later  years  of  the  war  the  Government 
Hospital  Transports  bore  some  resemblance  to  a  well  ordered 
General  Hospital.  There  was  not,  indeed,  the  complete  order 
and  system,  the  thorough  ventilation,  the  Avell  regulated  diet,  and 
the  careful  and  systematic  treatment  which  marked  the  manage 
ment  of  the  great  hospitals,  for  these  were  to  a  considerable  ex 
tent  impossible  on  shipboard,  and  especially  where  the  changes 
of  patients  were  so  frequent. 

For  a  period  of  nearly  seventeen  months,  during  the  last  two 
years  of  the  war,  the  United  States  Steamship  Connecticut  was 
employed  as  a  hospital  transport,  bringing  the  sick  and  wounded 
from  City  Point  to  Washington  and  Baltimore,  and  later,  closing 
up  one  after  another,  the  hospitals  in  Virginia  and  on  the  shores 
of  Maryland  and  Delaware,  and  transferring  their  patients  to 
convalescent  camps  or  other  hospitals,  or  some  point  where  they 
could  be  put  en  route  for  home.  On  this  steamship  Miss  HATTIE 
R.  SHARPLESS  commenced  her  labors  as  matron,  on  the  10th  of 

May,  1864,  and  continued   with  only  a   brief  intermission  till 

741 


742 

September  1st,  1865.  She  was  no  novice  in  hospital  work  when 
she  assumed  this  position.  A  native  and  resident  of  Bloomsburg, 
Columbia  County,  Pa.,  she  had  first  entered  upon  her  duties  as 
nurse  in  the  Army  in  July,  1862,  when  in  connection  with  Miss 
Rose  M.  Billing  and  Miss  Belle  Robinson,  the  latter  being  also  a 
Pennsylvanian,  she  commenced  hospital  work  at  Fredericksburg. 
Subsequently,  with  her  associate,  she  was  at  the  Falls  Church 
Hospital  and  at  Antietam,  and  we  believe  also  at  Chancellors- 
ville  and  Gettysburg.  She  is  a  lady  admirably  adapted  to  the 
hospital-work ;  tender,  faithful,  conscientious,  unselfish,  never 
resting  while  she  could  minister  to  the  suffering,  and  happiest 
when  she  could  do  most  for  those  in  her  care.  During  her  service 
on  the  Connecticut,  thirty-three  thousand  sick  and  wounded  men 
were  conveyed  on  that  steamer  to  hospitals  in  Washington,  Alex 
andria,  Baltimore  and  other  points.  Constant  and  gentle  in  the 
discharge  of  her  duties,  with  a  kind  and  if  possible  a  cheering 
word  for  each  poor  sufferer,  and  skillful  and  assiduous  in  provid 
ing  for  them  every  needed  comfort  so  for  as  lay  in  her  power, 
she  proved  herself  a  true  Christian  heroine  in  the  extent  and 
spirit  of  her  labors,  and  sent  joy  to  the  heart  of  many  who  were 
on  the  verge  of  despair. 

Her  religious  influence  upon  the  men  was  remarkable.  Never 
obtrusive  or  professional  in  her  treatment  of  religious  subjects, 
she  exhibited  rare  tact  and  ability  in  bringing  those  who  were  in 
the  possession  of  their  reason  and  consciousness  to  converse  on 
their  spiritual  condition,  and  in  pointing  them  affectionately  to 
the  atoning  Sacrifice  for  sin. 

In  these  wrorks  of  mercy  and  piety  she  was  ably  seconded  by 
her  cousin,  Miss  Hattie  S.  Reifsnyder,  of  Catawissa,  Columbia 
County,  Pa.,  a  lady  of  very  similar  spirit  and  tact,  who  was  with 
her  for  about  eight  months :  and  subsequently  by  Mrs.  Cynthia 
Case,  of  Newark,  Ohio,  who  succeeded  Miss  Reifsnyder,  and 
entered  into  her  work  in  the  same  thorough  Christian  spirit. 

Miss  W.  F.  HAERIS  is  a  native,  and  was  previous  to  the  war,  a 


HATTIE   R.  SHARPLESS    AND    HER   ASSOCIATES.  743 

resident  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  She  was  a  faithful  worker 
through  the  whole  war,  literally  wearing  herself  out  in  the  service. 
She  commenced  her  work  at  the  Indiana  Hospital,  in  the  Patent 
Office,  Washington,  in  the  spring  of  1862.  After  the  closing  of 
that  hospital,  she  transferred  her  service  to  Ascension  Church 
Hospital,  and  subsequently  early  in  1863,  to  the  Carver  Hospital, 
both  in  Washington,  where  she  labored  with  great  assiduity  and 
faithfulness.  Early  in  May,  1864,  she  was  appointed  to  service 
on  the  Transport  Connecticut,  where  she  was  indefatigable  in  her 
service,  and  manifested  the  same  tender  spirit,  and  the  same  skill 
and  tact,  as  Miss  Sharpless.  Of  less  vigorous  constitution  than 
her  associates,  she  was  frequently  a  severe  sufferer  from  her  over 
exertions.  In  the  summer  of  1864,  she  was  transferred  to  the 
Hospital  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  at  that  hospital  and  at  Winches 
ter  continued  her  service  faithfully,  though  amid  much  pain  and 
weariness,  to  the  close  of  the  war.  Though  her  health  was  much 
shattered  by  her  labors  she  could  not  rest,  and  has  devoted  her 
self  to  the  instruction  and  training  of  the  Freedmen  from  that 
time  to  the  present.  A  gentleman  who  was  associated  with  her 
in  her  service  in  the  Carver  Hospital  and  afterward  on  the  Trans 
port  Connecticut,  says  of  her:  "I  know  of  no  more  pure-minded, 
unselfish  and  earnest  laborer  among  all  the  women  of  the  war 
that  came  under  my  notice." 


PART  VI. 


LADIES  DISTINGUISHED  FOR  OTHER  SERVICES  IN  THE  NATIONAL 

CAUSE. 


MRS.    ANNIE    ETHERIDGE. 


O  woman  attached  to  a  regiment,  as  vivandiere,  canti- 
niere,  or  file  du  regiment  (we  use  the  French  terms 
because  we  have  no  English  ones  which  fully  corres 
pond  to  them),  during  the  recent  war,  has  won  so  high 
and  pure  a  renown  as  Annie  Etheridge.  Placed  in  circumstances 
of  peculiar  moral  peril,  her  goodness  and  purity  of  character  were 
so  strongly  marked  that  she  was  respected  and  beloved  not  only 
by  all  her  own  regiment,  but  by  the  brigade  division  and  corps 
to  which  that  regiment  belonged,  and  so  fully  convinced  were 
the  officers  from  the  corps  commander  down,  of  her  usefulness 
and  faithfulness  in  the  care  of  the  wounded,  that  at  a  time  when 
a  peremptory  order  was  issued  from  the  headquarters  of  the  army 
that  all  women,  whatever  their  position  or  services  should  leave 
the  camp,  all  the  principal  field  officers  of  the  corps  to  which  her 
regiment  was  attached  united .  in  a  petition  to  the  general-in- 
chief,  that  an  exception  might  be  made  in  her  favor. 

The  greater  part  of  Annie  Etheridge's  childhood  was  passed 
in  Wisconsin.  Her  father  was  a  man  of  considerable  property, 
and  her  girlhood  was  passed  in  ease  and  luxury ;  but  as  she  drew 
near  the  age  of  womanhood,  he  met  with  misfortunes  by  which 
he  lost  nearly  all  he  had  possessed,  and  returned  to  her  former 
home  in  Michigan.  Annie  remained  in  Wisconsin,  where  she  had 
married,  but  was  on  a  visit  to  her  father  in  Detroit  at  the  out 
break  of  the  war,  and  joined  the  Second  Michigan  Regiment 
when  they  departed  for  the  seat  of  war,  to  fulfil  the  office  of  a 

747 


748 

daughter  of  the  regiment,  in  attending  to  its  sick  and  wounded. 
When  that  regiment  was  sent  to  Tennessee  she  went  to  the  Third 
Regiment  in  which  she  had  many  friends,  and  was  with  them  in 
every  battle  in  which  they  were  engaged.  When  their  three 
years'  service  was  completed,  she  with  the  re-enlisted  veterans 
joined  the  Fifth  Michigan.  Through  this  whole  period  of  more 
than  four  years7  service  she  conducted  herself  with  such  modesty 
and  propriety,  and  was  at  the  same  time  so  full  of  patriotism  and 
courage,  that  she  was  a  universal  favorite  with  the  soldiers  as 
well  as  officers. 

She  was  in  the  skirmish  of  Blackburn's  Ford,  and  subsequently 
in  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  where  she  manifested  the  same 
courage  and  presence  of  mind  which  characterized  her  in  all  her 
subsequent  career  in  the  army.  She  never  carried  a  musket, 
though  she  had  a  pair  of  pistols  in  her  holsters,  but  seldom  or 
never  used  them.  She  wras  for  a  time  during  the  winter  follow 
ing  engaged  in  hospital  service,  and  when  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  went  to  the  Peninsula,  during  the  Chickahominy  cam 
paign  she  was  on  a  hospital  transport  with  Miss  Amy  M. 
Bradley,  and  rendered  excellent  service  there.  She  was  a  very 
tender  and  careful  nurse,  and  seemed  to  know  instinctively 
what  to  do  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  She  returned  to  Alexan 
dria  with  her  regiment,  and  was  with  them  at  the  second  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  on  the  29th  of  August,  1862.  Early  in  this  battle 
she  was  on  a  portion  of  the  battle-field  which  had  been  warmly 
contested,  where  there  was  a  rocky  ledge,  under  shelter  of  which; 
some  of  the  wounded  had  crawled.  Annie  lingered  behind  the 
troops,  as  they  changed  position,  assisted  several  poor  helpless 
fellows  to  this  cover  and  dressed  their  wounds.  One  of  these 
was  William of  the  Seventh  New  York  Infantry,  a  noble- 
looking  boy,  to  whose  parched  lips  she  had  held  the  cooling 
draught,  and  had  bound  up  his  wounds,  receiving  in  return  a 
look  of  unutterable  gratitude  from  his  bright  blue  eyes,  and  his 
faintly  murmured  "  God's  blessing  on  you,"  when  a  shot  from 


ANNIE    ETHERIDGE.  751 

Infantry  Surgeons  with  their  hands  full  with  their  own  wounded 
would  not,  and  perhaps  could  not,  always  render  them  speedy 
assistance.  A  year  later  Annie  received  the  following  letter, 
which  was  found  on  the  body  of  a  Lieutenant  Strachan,  of  her 
division,  who  was  killed  in  one  of  the  early  battles  of  Grant's 
campaign. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  January  14th,  1864. 

ANNIE — Dearest  Friend:  I  am  not  long  for  this  world,  and  I  wish  to  thank 
you  for  your  kindness  ere  I  go. 

You  were  the  only  one  who  was  ever  kind  to  me,  since  I  entered  the  Army. 
At  Chancellorsville,  I  was  shot  through  the  body,  the  ball  entering  my  side, 
and  coming  out  through  the  shoulder.  I  was  also  hit  -in  the  arm,  and  was  car 
ried  to  the  hospital  in  the  woods,  where  I  lay  for  hours,  and  not  a  surgeon 
would  touch  me;  when  you  came  along  and  gave  me  water,  and  bound  up  my 
wounds.  I  do  not  know  what  regiment  you  belong  to,  and  I  don't  know  if  this 
will  ever  reach  you.  There  is  only  one  man  in  your  division  that  I  know.  I 
will  try  and  send  this  to  him;  his  name  is  Strachan,  orderly  sergeant  in  Sixty- 
third  Pennsylvania  volunteers. 

But  should  you  get  this,  please  accept  my  heartfelt  gratitude ;  and  may  God 
bless  you,  and  protect  you  from  all  dangers ;  may  you  be  eminently  successful 
in  your  present  pursuit.  I  enclose  a  flower,  a  present  from  a  sainted  mother ;  it 
is  the  only  gift  I  have  to  send  you.  Had  I  a  picture,  I  would  send  you  one; 
but  I  never  had  but  two,  one  my  sister  has ;  the  other,  the  sergeant  I  told  you 
of;  he  would  give  it  you,  if  you  should  tell  him  it  is  my  desire.  I  know  noth 
ing  of  your  history,  but  I  hope  you  always  have,  and  always  may  be  happy; 
and,  since  I  will  be  unable  to  see  you  in  this  world,  I  hope  I  may  meet  you  in 
that  better  world,  where  there  is  no  war.  May  God  bless  you,  both  now  and 
forever,  is  the  wish  of  your  grateful  friend, 

GEORGE  H.  HILL, 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 

During  the  battle  of  Spottsylvania,  Annie  met  a  number  of 
soldiers  retreating.  She  expostulated  with  them,  and  at  last 
shamed  them  into  doing  their  duty,  by  offering  to  lead  them  back 
into  the  fight,  which  she  did  under  a  heavy  fire  from  the  enemy. 
She  had  done  the  same  thing  more  than  once  on  other  battle 
fields,  not  by  flourishing  a  sword  or  rifle,  for  she  carried  neither; 
nor  by  waving  a  flag,  for  she  was  never  color-bearer;  but  by 
inspiring  the  men  to  deeds  of  valor  by  her  own  example,  her 


752  WOMAN'S    WORK    IN    THE    CIVIL    WAR. 

courage,  and  her  presence  of  mind.  On  the  1st  or  2nd  of  June, 
when  the  Second  Corps  attacked  the  enemy  at  Deep  Bottom, 
Annie  became  separated  from  her  regiment,  and  with  her  usual 
attendant,  the  surgeon's  orderly,  who  carried  the  "pill  box"  (the 
medicine  chest),  she  started  in  search  of  it,  and  before  long,  with 
out  being  aware  of  the  fact,  she  had  passed  beyond  the  line  of 
Union  pickets.  Here  she  met  an  officer,  apparently  reconnoiter- 
iug,  who  told  her  she  must  turn  back,  as  the  enemy  was  near ; 
and  hardly  were  the  words  spoken,  when  their  skirmishers 
suddenly  appeared.  The  officer  struck  his  spurs  into  his  horse 
and  fled,  Annie  and  the  orderly  following  with  all  speed,  and 
arrived  safe  within  our  lines.  As  the  Rebels  hoped  to  surprise 
our  troops,  they  did  not  fire  lest  they  should  give  the  alarm;  and 
to  this  fact  Annie  probably  owed  her  escape  unscathed. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1864,  in  one  of  the  battles  for  the 
possession  of  Hatcher's  Kun  and  the  Boydtown  Plank  Road,  a 
portion  of  the  Third  Division  of  the  Second  Corps,  was  nearly 
surrounded  by  the  enemy,  in  what  the  soldiers  called  the  "  Bull 
King;."  The  regiment  to  which  Annie  was  attached  was  sorely 

o  c5  * 

pressed,  the  balls  flying  thick  and  fast,  so  that  the  surgeon  advised 
her  to  accompany  him  to  safer  quarters;  but  she  lingered,  watch 
ing  for  an  opportunity  to  render  assistance.  A  little  drummer 
boy  stopped  to  speak  to  her,  when  a  ball  struck  him,  and  he  fell 
against  her,  and  then  to  the  ground,  dead.  This  so  startled  her, 
that  she  ran  towards  the  line  of  battle.  But  to  her  surprise,  she 
found  that  the  enemy  occupied  every  part  of  the  ground  held  a 
few  moments  before  by  Union  troops.  She  did  not  pause,  how 
ever,  but  dashed  through  their  line  unhurt,  though  several  of  the 
chivalry  fired  at  her. 

So  strong  was  the  confidence  of  the  soldiers  in  her  courage  and 
fidelity  to  her  voluntarily  assumed  duties,  that  whenever  a  battle 
was  to  be  fought  it  was  regarded  as  absolutely  certain  that 
"  Gentle  Annie"  (so  the  soldiers  named  her)  would  be  at  hand  to 
render  assistance  to  any  in  need.  General  Birney  never  per- 


ANNIE    ETHERIDGE.  753 

formed  an  act  more  heartily  approved  by  his  entire  command, 
tli  an  when  in  the  presence  of  his  troops,  he  presented  her  with 
the  Kearny  cross. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  though  her  health  had  been  somewhat 
shaken  by  her  varied  and  trying  experiences,  she  felt  the  necessity 
of  engaging  in  some  employment,  by  which  she  could  maintain 
herself,  and  aid  her  aged  father,  and  accepted  an  appointment  in 
one  of  the  Government  departments,  where  she  labors  assiduously 
for  twelve  hours  daily.  Her  army  experiences  have  not  robbed 
her  of  that  charming  modesty  and  diffidence  of  demeanor,  which 
are  so  attractive  in  a  woman,  or  made  her  boastful  of  her  adven 
tures.  To  these  she  seldom  alludes,  and  never  in  such  a  way  as 
to  indicate  that  she  thinks  herself  in  the  least  a  heroine. 

95 


DELPHINE    P.   BAKER. 


HOUGH  her  attentions  and  efforts  have  had  a  specific 
direction  widely  different,  for  the  most  part,  from  those 
of  the  majority  of  the  American  women,  who  have 
devoted  themselves  to  the  cause  of  the  country  and  its 
defenders,  few  have  been  more  actively  and  energetically  em 
ployed,  or  perhaps  more  usefully,  than  the  subject  of  the  following 
sketch.  To  her  efforts,  persistent,  untiring,  self-sacrificing,  almost 
entirely  does  the  Nation  owe  the  organization  of  the  National 
Military  Asylum — a  home  for  the  maimed  and  permanently  dis 
abled  veterans  who  gave  themselves  to  the  cause  which  has  so 
signally  triumphed. 

Delphine  P.  Baker  was  born  in  Bethlehem,  Grafton  County, 
New  Hampshire,  in  the  year  1828,  and  she  resided  in  New  Eng 
land  during  her  early  youth.  Her  father  was  a  respectable 
mechanic  of  good  family,  an  honest,  intellectual,  industrious  man, 
of  sterling  principle  and  a  good  member  of  society.  Her  mother 
possessed  a  large  self-acquired  culture,  a  mind  of  uncommon 
scope,  and  a  vivid  and  powerful  imagination.  She  was  in  a  large 
degree  capable  of  influencing  the  minds  of  others,  and  was  en 
dowed  with  a  natural  power  of  leadership. 

These  qualities  and  traits  of  both  parents  we  find  remarkably 
developed  in  the  daughter,  and  to  them  is  doubtless  largely  due 
the  successful  achievement  of  the  great  object  of  her  later  labors. 
A  feeling,  from  some  cause  always  cherished  by  her  mother,  until 
it  became  an  actual  belief,  that  her  child  was  destined  to  an  ex- 

754 


DELPHINE   P.  BAKEE.  755 

traordinary  career,  was  so  impressed  upon  her  daughter's  mind, 
and  inwrought  with  her  higher  being  as  to  become  a  controlling 
impulse.  It  is  easy,  in  tracing  the  history  of  Miss  Baker,  to 
mark  the  influence  of  this  fixed  idea  in  every  act  of  her  life. 

For  some  years  previous  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  Miss 
Baker  had  devoted  herself  to  the  inculcation  of  proper  ideas  of 
the  sphere  and  culture  of  woman.  She  belonged  to  no  party,  or 
clique,  had  no  connection  with  the  Women's  Rights  Movement, 
but  desired  to  see  her  sex  better  educated,  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  fullest  mental  development.  To  that  end  she  had  travelled 
in  many  of  the  Western  States,  giving  lectures  upon  her  favorite 
subject,  and  largely  influencing  the  public  mind.  In  this  employ 
ment  her  acquaintance  had  become  very  extensive. 

At  the  time  of  the  first  breaking  out  of  hostilities,  Miss  Baker 
was  residing  in  Chicago,  Illinois,  enjoying  a  respite  from  public 
labors,  and  devoting  herself  to  her  family.  But  she  soon  saw 
that  there  was  much  need  of  the  efforts  of  woman — a  great  deal 
to  be  done  by  her  in  preparing  for  the  sudden  emergency  into 
which  the  nation  had  been  plunged.  Government  had  not  at 
hand  all  the  appliances  for  sending  its  newly  raised  forces  into 
the  field  properly  equipped,  and  women,  who  could  not  wield  the 
bayonet,  were  skillful  in  the  use  of  another  implement  as  sharp 
and  bright,  and  which  just  at  that  period  could  be  as  usefully 
brought  into  action. 

The  devoted  labors  of  the  women  of  Chicago  for  the  soldiers, 
have  long  since  become  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  war.  In  these 
Miss  Baker  had  her  own,  and  a  large  share.  She  collected 
materials  for  garments,  exerted  her  influence  among  her  extensive 
circle  of  acquaintances  in  gathering  up  supplies,  and  providing 
for  the  yet  small,  but  rapidly  increasing,  demand  for  hospital 
comforts.  She  took  several  journeys  to  St.  Louis  and  Chicago, 
ministered  in  the  hospitals,  and  induced  others  to  enter  upon  the 
same  work.  Perceiving,  with  a  quick  eye,  what  was  most  needed 
in  the  hastily-arranged  and  half-furnished  places  to  which  the 


756 

sick  and  wounded  were  consigned,  she  journeyed  backward  and 
forward,  gathering  up  from  the  rich  and  well-disposed  the  needed 
articles,  and  then  conveying  them  herself  to  those  points  where 
they  were  most  wanted. 

Not  in  strong  health,  a  few  months  of  such  indefatigable  labors 
exhausted  her  strength.  She  returned  to  Chicago,  but  her  ardent 
spirit  chafed  in  inaction.  After  a  time  she  resolved  to  commence 
a  literary  enterprise  in  aid  of  the  object  she  had  so  much  at  heart, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1862  she  announced  the  forthcoming  publi 
cation  of  the  "  National  Banner/7  a  monthly  paper  of  sixteen 
pages,  the  profits  of  which  were  to  be  devoted  to  the  needs  of  the 
volunteer  soldiery  of  the  United  States. 

After  publishing  in  Chicago  a  few  numbers  of  this  very  reada 
ble  paper,  she  removed  it  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  where  its  publi 
cation  was  for  some  time  continued.  It  was  then  transferred  to 
New  York. 

The  National  Banner  did  not  meet  with  all  the  success,  its 
patriotic  object  and  its  real  literary  excellence,  demanded.  Dur 
ing  the  last  year  of  the  war  it  was  not  published  with  complete 
regularity,  owing  to  this  cause,  and  to  the  lack  of  pecuniary 
means.  But  it  was  undoubtedly  the  means  of  doing  a  great  deal 
of  good.  Among  other  things  it  kept  constantly  before  the  peo 
ple  the  great  object  into  which  Miss  Baker  had  now  entered  with 
all  the  ardor  and  the  persistence  of  her  nature. 

This  object  was  the  founding  of  a  National  Home  for  totally 
disabled  volunteers  of  the  Union  service,  and  included  all  who 
had  in  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  nation  become  incompe 
tent  to  provide  for  their  own  wants  or  those  of  their  families. 

For  years,  with  a  devotion  seldom  equalled,  and  a  self-sacrifice 
almost  unparalleled,  Miss  Baker  gave  herself  to  this  work.  She 
wrote,  she  travelled,  she  enlisted  the  aid  of  her  numerous  friends, 
she  importuned  the  Executive,  Heads  of  Departments,  and  mem 
bers  of  Congress.  She  gave  herself  no  rest,  she  flinched  at  no 
privations.  She  apparently  existed  by  the  sheer  necessity  of  liv- 


DELPHINE    P.  BAKER.  757 

ing  for  her  object,  and  in  almost  total  self-abnegation  she  encoun 
tered  opposition,  paralyzing  delays,  false  promises,  made  only  to 
be  broken,  and  hypocritical  advice,  intended  only  to  mislead. 

Hopeful,  unsubdued,  unchanged,  she  at  last  saw  herself  nearing 
success.  The  session  of  1865  was  drawing  to  a  close,  and  repeated 
promises  of  reporting  the  bill  for  the  establishment  of  the  Asylum 
had  been  broken.  But  at  length  her  almost  agonized  pleadings 
had  their  effect.  Three  days  before  the  adjournment  of  Congress 
Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs,  in  the  Senate  introduced  the  bill.  It  provided  for  the 
establishment  of  a  National  Military  and  Naval  Asylum  for  the 
totally  disabled  of  both  branches  of  the  service. 

In  the  confusion  and  hurry  of  the  closing  scenes  of  the  session 
the  bill  did  not  probably  meet  the  attention  it  would  have  done 
under  other  circumstances.  But  it  was  well  received,  passed  by 
a  large  vote  of  both  houses,  was  sanctioned  by  the  signature  of 
President  Lincoln,  and  became  a  law  before  the  adjournment  of 
Congress. 

The  bill  appointed  one  hundred  corporators  who  were  to  organ 
ize  and  assume  the  powers  granted  them  under  its  provisions,  for 
the  immediate  foundation  of  the  proper  establishment  or  estab 
lishments,  for  the  reception  of  the  contemplated  recipients  of  its 
benefits.  The  fund  accrued  from  military  fines  and  unclaimed 
pay  of  members  of  the  service,  was  to  be  handed  over  to  the  use 
of  the  Asylum  as  soon  as  a  corresponding  sum  was  raised  by 
public  gift. 

Unfortunately  for  the  success  of  the  organization,  the  meeting 
of  the  corporators  for  that  purpose  was  appointed  for  the  day 
afterward  so  mournfully  conspicuous  as  that  of  the  funeral  obse 
quies  of  our  assassinated  President.  Amidst  the  sad  and  angry 
excitement  of  the  closing  scenes  of  that  terrible  tragedy,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  convene  a  sufficient  number  of  the  corpo 
rators  (although  present  in  the  city)  to  form  a  quorum  for  the 
transaction  of  business.  The  opportunity  thus  lost  did  not  recur, 


758  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

and  though  an  effort  was  made  to  substitute  proxies  for  actual 
members  of  the  body,  it  was  unsuccessful,  and  an  organization 
was  not  effected. 

Thus  a  year  dragged  its  slow  length  along.  Miss  Baker  was 
busy  enlarging  her  sphere  of  influence — encountering  and  over 
coming  opposition  and  obstacles,  endeavoring  to  secure  co-opera 
tion,  and  in  securing  also  personal  possession  of  the  property  at 
Point  Lookout,  Maryland,  which  she  believed  to  be  a  desirable 
site  for  the  Asylum.  Her  object  in  this  was  that  she  might  hold 
this  property  until  the  organization  was  effected,  and  it  might  be 
legally  transferred  to  the  corporators. 

Point  Lookout  was  a  watering-place  previous  to  the  war.  The 
hospital  property  there  consists  of  three  hundred  acres  of  land, 
occupying  the  point  which  divides  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac 
River  from  Chesapeake  Bay,  at  the  confluence  of  the  former  with 
the  Bay.  One  or  more  large  hotels,  numerous  cottages  and  other 
buildings  remained  from  the  days  of  peace.  The  Government 
also  established  there,  during  the  war,  Hammond  General  Hos 
pital  with  its  extensive  buildings,  and  a  stockade  and  encampment 
for  prisoners.  The  air  is  salubrious,  the  land  fertile,  a  supply  of 
excellent  water  brought  from  neighboring  heights,  and  an  exten 
sive  oyster-bed  and  a  fine  beach  for  bathing,  add  to  its  attractions. 
Believing  the  place  well  calculated  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
Asylum,  Miss  Baker  desired  to  secure  the  private  property  to 
gether  with  a  grant  from  the  Government  of  that  portion  which 
belongs  to  it.  She  succeeded  in  securing  the  latter,  and  in  delay 
ing  the  contemplated  sale  of  the  former. 

A  change  being  imperatively  demanded  in  the  Act  of  Incor 
poration,  efforts  were  immediately  commenced  at  the  next  session 
of  Congress  to  effect  this  purpose.  Again  the  painful,  anxious 
delays,  again  the  wearisome  opposition  were  encountered.  But 
Miss  Baker  and  the  movement  had  friends — and  in  the  highest 
quarters.  Her  efforts  were  countenanced  and  aided  by  these,  but 
it  was  not  till  the  session  of  1866  approached  its  close  that  the 


DELPHINE    P.  BAKER.  759 

amended  bill  was  reached,  and  the  votes  of  both  Houses  at  last 
placed  the  whole  matter  on  a  proper  footing,  and  in  competent 
hands. 

With  Major-General  Butler  at  the  head  of  the  Managing 
Board  of  Trustees,  the  successful  commencement  of  the  Institu 
tion  is  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  Board  is  composed  of  some 
of  the  best  men  of  the  Nation — men,  some  of  them  unequalled 
in  their  various  spheres.  The  United  States  will  soon  boast  for 
its  disabled  defenders  Institutions  (for  the  present  management 
contemplate  the  establishment  of  Homes  at  several  points),  fully 
equal  to  those  which  the  great  Powers  of  Europe  have  erected 
for  similar  purposes.  In  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1866-7  Miss 
Baker  succeeded  in  consummating  the  purchase,  and  tender  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  Asylum  of  the  Point  Lookout  property. 

The  labors  of  Miss  Baker  for  this  purpose  are  now  ended.  She 
retires,  not  to  rest  or  idleness,  but  still  to  lend  her  efforts  to  this 
or  any  other  great  and  worthy  cause.  She  has  no  official  connec 
tion  with  the  organization  which  controls  the  destiny  of  the 
Asylum.  But  it  will  not  cease  to  be  remembered  in  this  country 
that  to  her  efforts  the  United  States  owes  in  great  part  all  that,  as 
a  nation,  it  has  done  for  the  men  who  have  thus  given  all  but 
life  itself  to  its  cause. 


MRS.S.  BURGER  STEARNS. 


HIS  lady  is  a  native  of  New  York  city,  where  she  re 
sided  for  the  first  seven  years  of  her  life.  In  1844 
her  parents  removed  to  Michigan,  where  she  has  lived 
ever  since,  receiving  her  education  at  the  best  schools, 
and  spending  much  time  in  preparation  for  a  classical  course  at 
the  State  University.  She  was,  however,  with  other  young  ladies, 
denied  admission  there,  on  the  ground  of  expediency ;  and  finally 
entered  the  State  Normal  School  where  she  graduated  with  high 
honors. 

She  soon  after  became  Mrs.  Stearns,  her  husband  being  a  gradu 
ate  of  the  Literary  and  Law  Departments  of  the  Michigan 
University.  But  choosing  to  devote  himself  to  the  service  of  his 
country,  he  entered  the  army  as  First  Lieutenant,  afterwards 
rising  to  the  rank  of  Colonel. 

Mrs.  Stearns  determined  to  devote  herself  to  the  work  of  lectur 
ing  in  behalf  of  the  Aid  movement,  and  did  extensive,  and  much 
appreciated  services  in  this  direction.  From  time  to  time  she 
visited  the  hospitals,  and  learned  the  details  of  the  work,  as  well 
as  the  necessities  required  there ;  in  that  way  rendering  herself 
peculiarly  competent  for  her  chosen  field  of  labor.  She  con 
tinued  in  this  service  until  the  close  of  the  war,  accomplishing 
much  good,  and  laboring  with  much  acceptance. 

760 


BARBARA  FRIETCHIE. 


AKBARA  FRIETCHIE  was  an  aged  lady  of  Freder 
ick,  Maryland,  of  German  birth,  but  intensely  patriotic. 
In  September,  1862,  when  Lee's  army  were  on  their 
way  to  Antietam,  "Stonewall"  Jackson's  corps  passed 
through  Frederick,  and  the  inhabitants,  though  a  majority  of 
them  were  loyal,  resolved  not  to  provoke  the  rebels  unnecessarily, 
knowing  that  they  could  make  no  effectual  resistance  to  such  a 
large  force,  and  accordingly  took  down  their  flags ;  but  Dame 
Barbara  though  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  could  not  brook  that 
the  flag  of  the  Union  should  be  humbled  before  the  rebel  ensign, 
and  from  her  upper  window  waved  her  flag,  the  only  one  visible 
that  day  in  Frederick.  Whittier  has  told  the  whole  story  so  ad 
mirably  that  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  transfer  his  exquisite 
poem  to  our  pages.  Dame  Barbara  died  in  1865. 

BARBARA  FRIETCHIE. 

Up  from  the  meadows  rich  with  corn, 
Clear  in  the  cool  September  morn, 

The  clustered  spires  of  Frederick  stand, 
Green-walled  by  the  hills  of  Maryland. 

Round  about  them  orchards  sweep, 
Apple  and  peach  trees  fruited  deep, 

Fair  as  a  garden  of  the  Lord 
To  the  eyes  of  the  famished  rebel  horde, 
96  761 


762  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

On  that  pleasant  morn  of  the  early  fall 
When  Lee  marched  over  the  mountain-wall — • 

Over  the  mountains  winding  down, 
Horse  and  foot,  into  Frederick  town. 

Forty  flags  with  their  silver  stars, 
Forty  flags  with  their  crimson  bars, 

Flapped  in  the  morning  wind :  the  sun 
Of  noon  looked  down,  and  saw  not  one. 

Up  rose  old  Barbara  Frietchie  then, 
Bowed  with  her  fourscore  years  and  ten  ; 

Bravest  of  all  in  Frederick  town, 

She  took  up  the  flag  the  men  hauled  down  j 

In  her  attic-window  the  staff  she  set, 
To  show  that  one  heart  was  loyal  yet, 

Up  the  street  came  the  rebel  tread, 
Stonewall  Jackson  riding  ahead. 

Under  his  slouched  hat  left  and  right 
He  glanced ;  the  old  flag  met  his  sight. 

"Halt!" — the  dust-brown  ranks  stood  fast, 
"  Fire  !" — out  blazed  the  rifle-blast. 

It  shivered  the  window,  pane  and  sash : 
It  rent  the  banner  with  seam  and  gash. 

Quick,  as  it  fell,  from  the  broken  staff 
Dame  Barbara  snatched  the  silken  scarf; 

She  leaned  far  out  on  the  window-sill, 
And  shook  it  forth  with  a  royal  will. 

"Shoot,  if  you  must,  this  old  gray  head, 
But  spare  your  country's  flag,"  she  said. 

A  shade  of  sadness,  a  blush  of  shame, 
Over  the  face  of  the  leader  came ; 

The  nobler  nature  within  him  stirred 
To  life  at  that  woman's  deed  and  word : 


BARBARA    FRIETCHIE.  763 

"  Who  touches  a  hair  of  yon  gray  head 
Dies  like  a  dog !     March  on  !"  he  said. 

All  day  long  through  Frederick  street 
Sounded  the  tread  of  marching  feet : 

All  day  long  that  free  flag  tost 
Over  the  heads  of  the  rebel  host. 

Ever  its  torn  folds  rose  and  fell 

On  the  loyal  winds  that  loved  it  well ; 

And  through  the  hill-gaps  sunset  light 
Shone  over  it  with  a  warm  good-night. 

Barbara  Frietchie's  work  is  o'er, 

And  the  Kebel  rides  on  his  raids  no  more. 

Honor  to  her !  and  let  a  tear 

Fall,  for  her  sake,  on  Stonewall's  bier. 

Over  Barbara  Frietchie's  grave, 
Flag  of  Freedom  and  Union,  wave ! 

Peace  and  order  and  beauty  draw 
Bound  thy  symbol  of  light  and  law ; 

And  ever  the  stars  above  look  down 
On  thy  stars  below  in  Frederick  town ! 


MRS.    HETTY   M.   McEWEN. 


RS.  McEWEN  is  an  aged  woman  of  Nashville,  Ten 
nessee,  of  revolutionary  stock,  having  had  six  uncles  in 
the  revolutionary  war,  four  of  whom  fell  at  the  battle 
of  King's  Mountain.  Her  husband,  Colonel  Robert 
H.  McEwen,  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812,  as  his  father  had 
been  in  the  revolution.  Her  devotion  to  the  Union,  like  that  of 
most  of  those  who  had  the  blood  of  our  revolutionary  fathers  in 
their  veins  is  intense,  and  its  preservation  and  defense  were  the 
objects  of  her  greatest  concern.  Making  a  flag  with  her  own 
hands,  she  raised  it  in  the  first  movements  of  secession,  in  Nash 
ville,  and  when  through  the  treachery  of  Ishani  Harris  and  his 
co-conspirators,  Tennessee  was  dragged  out  of  the  Union,  and  the 
secessionists  demanded  that  the  flag  should  be  taken  down,  the 
brave  old  couple  nailed  it  to  the  flag-staff,  and  that  to  the  chim 
ney  of  their  house.  The  secessionists  threatened  to  fire  the  house 
if  it  was  not  lowered,  and  the  old  lady  armed  with  a  shot-gun, 
undertook  to  defend  it,  and  drove  them  away.  She  subsequently 
refused  to  give  up  her  fire-arms  on  the  requisition  of  the  traitor 
Harris.  Mrs.  Lucy  H.  Hooper  has  told  the  story  of  the  rebel 
efforts  to  procure  the  lowering  of  her  flag  very  forcibly  and 
truthfully : 

HETTY  McEWEN. 
Oh  Hetty  McEwen  !  Hetty  McEwen  ! 
What  were  the  angry  rebels  doing, 
That  autumn  day,  in  Nashville  town, 
They  looked  aloft  with  oath  and  frown, 
764 


HETTY    McEWEX.  765 

And  saw  the  Stars  and  Stripes  wave  high 
Against  the  blue  of  the  sunny  sky ; 
Deep  was  the  oath,  and  dark  the  frown, 
And  loud  the  shout  of  "  Tear  it  down  !" 

For  over  Nashville,  far  and  wide, 
Rebel  banners  the  breeze  defied, 
Staining  heaven  with  crimson  bars ; 
Only  the  one  old  "Stripes  and  Stars" 
Waved,  where  autumn  leaves  were  strewing, 
Bound  the  home  of  Hetty  McEwen. 

Hetty  McEwen  watched  that  day 
Where  her  soil  on  his  death-bed  lay; 
She  heard  the  hoarse  and  angry  cry — 
The  blood  of  "76"  rose  high. 
Out-flashed  her  eye,  her  cheek  grew  warm, 
Up  rose  her  aged  stately  form  ; 
From  her  window,  with  steadfast  brow, 
She  looked  upon  the  crowd  below. 

Eyes  all  aflame  with  angry  fire 

Flashed  on  her  in  defiant  ire, 

And  once  moi'e  rose  the  angry  call, 
"Tear  down  that  flag,  or  the  house  shall  fall!" 

Never  a  single  inch  quailed  she, 

Her  answer  rang  out  firm  and  free : 
"  Under  the  roof  where  that  flag  flies, 

Now  my  son  on  his  death-bed  lies; 

Born  where  that  banner  floated  high, 

'Neath  its  folds  he  shall  surely  die. 

Not  for  threats  nor  yet  for  suing 

Shall  it  fall,"  said  Hetty  McEwen. 

The  loyal  heart  and  steadfast  hand 
Claimed  respect  from  the  traitor  band ; 
The  fiercest  rebel  quailed  that  day 
Before  that  woman  stern  and  gray. 
They  went  in  silence,  one  by  one — 
Left  her  there  with  her  dying  son, 
And  left  the  old  flag  floating  free 
O'er  the  bravest  heart  in  Tennessee, 


7G6 


To  wave  in  loyal  splendor  there 

Upon  that  treason-tainted  air, 

Until  the  rebel  rule  was  o'er 

And  Nashville  town  was  ours  once  more. 

Came  the  day  when  Fort  Donelson 

Fell,  and  the  rebel  reign  was  done ; 

And  into  Nashville,  Buell,  then, 

Marched  with  a  hundred  thousand  men, 

With  waving  flags  and  rolling  drums 

Past  the  heroine's  house  he  comes  ; 

He  checked  his  steed  and  bared  his  head, 
"  Soldiers  !  salute  that  flag,"  he  said  ; 
"  And  cheer,  boys,  cheer  ! — give  three  times  three 

For  the  bravest  woman  in  Tennessee  1" 


OTHER    DEFENDERS    OF    THE    FLAG. 


ARBARA  FRIETCHIE  and  Hettie  McEwen  were 
not  the  only  women  of  our  country  who  were  ready  to 
risk  their  lives  in  the  defense  of  the  National  Flag. 
Mrs.  Effie  Titlow,  as  we  have  already  stated  elsewhere, 
displayed  the  flag  wrapped  about  her,  at  Middletown,  Maryland, 
when  the  Rebels  passed  through  that  town  in  1863.  Early  in 
1861,  while  St.  Louis  yet  trembled  in  the  balance,  and  it  seemed 
doubtful  whether  the  Secessionists  were  not  in  the  majority, 
Alfred  Clapp,  Esq.,  a  merchant  of  that  city,  raised  the  flag  on  his 
own  house,  then  the  only  loyal  house  for  nearly  half  a  mile,  on 
that  street,  and  nailed  it  there.  His  secession  neighbors  came 
to  the  house  and  demanded  that  it  should  be  taken  down. 
Never!  said  his  heroic  wife,  afterwards  president  of  the  Union 
Ladies'  Aid  Society.  The  demand  was  repeated,  and  one  of  the 
secessionists  at  last  said,  "  Well,  if  you  will  not  take  it  down,  I 
will,"  and  moved  for  the  stairs  leading  to  the  roof.  Quick  as 
thought,  Mrs.  Clapp  intercepted  him.  "  You  can  only  reach  that 
flag  over  my  dead  body/7  said  she.  Finding  her  thus  determined, 
the  secessionist  left,  and  though  frequent  threats  were  muttered 
against  the  flag,  it  was  not  disturbed. 

Mrs.  Moore  (Parson  Brownlow's  daughter)  was  another  of 
these  fearless  defenders  of  the  flag.  In  June,  1861,  the  Rebels 
were  greatly  annoyed  at  the  sturdy  determination  of  the  Parson 
to  keep  the  Stars  and  Stripes  floating  over  his  house;  and  dele 
gation  after  delegation  came  to  his  dwelling  to  demand  that  they 
should  be  lowered.  They  were  refused,  and  generally  went  off 

767 


768  WOMAN'S    WORK    IN    THE    CIVIL    WAR. 

in  a  rage.  On  one  of  these  occasions,,  nine  men  from  a  Louisiana 
regiment  stationed  at  Knoxville,  determined  to  see  the  flag 
humbled.  Two  men  were  chosen  as  a  committee  to  proceed 
to  the  parson's  house  to  order  the  Union  ensign  down.  Mrs. 
Moore  (the  parson's  daughter)  answered  the  summons.  In 
answer  to  her  inquiry  as  to  what  was  their  errand,  one  said,  rudely : 

"  We  have  come  to  take  down  that  d — d  rag  you  flaunt  from 
your  roof — the  Stripes  and  Stars." 

Mrs.  Moore  stepped  back  a  pace  or  two  within  the  door,  drew 
a  revolver  from  her  dress  pocket,  and  leveling  it,  answered : 

"  Come  on,  sirs,  and  take  it  down !" 

The  chivalrous  Confederates  were  startled. 

"Yes,  come  on!"  she  said,  as  she  advanced  toward  them. 

They  cleared  the  piazza,  and  stood  at  bay  on  the  wall. 

"  We'll  go  and  get  more  men,  and  then  d — d  if  it  don't  come 
down!" 

"Yes,  go  and  get  more  men — you  are  not  men!"  said  the  heroic 
woman,  contemptuously,  as  the  two  backed  from  the  place  and 
disappeared. 

Miss  Alice  Taylor,  daughter  of  Mrs.  Nellie  Maria  Taylor,  of 
New  Orleans,  a  young  lady  of  great  beauty  and  intelligence,  pos 
sessed  much  of  her  mother's  patriotic  spirit.  The  flag  was 
always  suspended  in  one  or  another  of  the  rooms  of  Mrs.  Taylor's 
dwelling,  and  notwithstanding  the  repeated  searches  made  by  the 
Rebels  it  remained  there  till  the  city  was  occupied  by  Union 
troops.  The  beauty  and  talent  of  the  daughter,  then  a  young 
lady  of  seventeen,  had  made  her  very  popular  in  the  city.  In 

1860,  she  had  made  a  presentation  speech  when  a  flag  was  pre 
sented  to  one  of  the  New  Orleans  Fire  Companies.     In  May, 

1861,  a  committee  of  thirteen  gentlemen  called  on  Mrs.  Taylor, 
and  informed  her  that  the  ladies  of  the  district  had  wrought  a 
flag  for  the  Crescent  City  (Rebel)  regiment  to  carry  on  their 
march  to  Washington,  and   that  the  services  of  her  daughter 
Alice  were  required  to  make  the  presentation  speech.     Of  course 


OHER   DEFENDERS   OF   THE    FLAG.  769 

Mrs.  Taylor's  consent  was  not  given,  and  the  committee  insisted 
that  they  must  see  the  young  lady,  and  that  she  must  make  the 
presentation  address.  She  was  accordingly  called,  and  after 
hearing  their  request,  replied  that  she  would  readily  consent  on 
two  conditions.  First,  that  her  mother's  permission  should  be 
obtained;  and  second,  that  the  Stars  and  Stripes  should  wave 
around  her,  and  decorate  the  arch  over  her  head,  as  on  the  former 
occasion.  The  committee,  finding  that  they  could  get  no  other 
terms,  withdrew,  vexed  and  mortified  at  their  failure. 

Mrs.  Booth,  the  widow  of  Major  Booth,  who  fell  contending 
against  fearful  odds  at  Fort  Pillow,  at  the  time  of  the  bloody 
massacre,  a  few  weeks  after  presented  the  blood-stained  flag  of 
the  fort  which  had  been  saved  by  one  of  the  few  survivors,  to 
the  remnant  of  the  First  Battalion  of  Major  Booth's  regiment, 
then  incorporated  with  the  Sixth  United  States  Heavy  Artillery, 
with  these  thrilling  words,  "Boys,  I  have  just  come  from  a  visit 
to  the  hospital  at  Mound  City.  There  I  saw  your  comrades, 
wounded  at  the  bloody  struggle  in  Fort  Pillow.  There  I  found 
the  flag — you  recognize  it !  One  of  your  comrades  saved  it  from 
the  insulting  touch  of  traitors.  I  have  given  to  my  country  all 
I  had  to  give — my  husband — such  a  gift !  Yet  I  have  freely 
given  him  for  freedom  and  my  country.  Next  to  my  husband's 
cold  remains,  the  dearest  object  left  to  me  in  the  world,  is  that 
flag — the  flag  that  waved  in  proud  defiance  over  the  works  of 
Fort  Pillow!  Soldiers!  this  flag  I  give  to  you,  knowing  that 
you  will  ever  remember  the  last  words  of  my  noble  husband, 
'never  surrender  the  flag  to  traitors!'" 

Colonel  Jackson  received  from  her  hand — on  behalf  of  his 
command — the  blood-stained  flag,  and  called  upon  his  regiment 
to  receive  it  as  such  a  gift  ought  to  be  received.  At  that  call,  he 
and  every  man  of  the  regiment  fell  upon  their  knees,  and 
solemnly  appealing  to  the  God  of  battles,  each  one  swore  to 
avenge  their  brave  and  fallen  comrades,  and  never,  never  surrender 
the  flag  to  traitors. 

97 


MILITARY    HEROINES. 


HE  number  of  women  who  actually  bore  arms  in  the 
war,  or  who,  though  generally  attending  a  regiment  as 
nurses  and  vivandie'res,  at  times  engaged  in  the  actual 
conflict  was  much  larger  than  is  generally  supposed, 
and  embraces  persons  of  all  ranks  of  society.  Those  who  from 
whatever  cause,  whether  romance,  love  or  patriotism,  and  all 
these  had  their  influence,  donned  the  male  attire  and  concealed 
their  sex,  are  hardly  entitled  to  a  place  in  our  record,  since  they 
did  not  seek  to  be  known  as  women,  but  preferred  to  pass  for 
men ;  but  aside  from  these  there  were  not  a  few  who,  without 
abandoning  the  dress  or  prerogatives  of  their  sex,  yet  performed 
skillfully  and  well  the  duties  of  the  other. 

Among  these  we  may  name  Madame  Turchin,  wife  of  General 
Turchin,  who  rendered  essential  service  by  her  coolness,  her 
thorough  knowledge  of  military  science,  her  undaunted  courage, 
and  her  skill  in  command.  She  is  the  daughter  of  a  Russian 
officer,  and  had  been  brought  up  in  the  camps,  where  she  was 
the  pet  and  favorite  of  the  regiment  up  to  nearly  the  time  of  her 
marriage  to  General  Turchin,  then  a  subordinate  officer  in  that 
army.  When  the  war  commenced  she  and  her  husband  had  been 
for  a  few  years  residents  of  Illinois,  and  when  her  husband  was 
commissioned  colonel  of  a  regiment  of  volunteers  she  prepared 
at  once  to  follow  him  to  the  field.  During  the  march  into  Ten 
nessee  in  the  spring  of  1862,  Colonel  Turchin  was  taken  seriously 
ill,  and  for  some  days  was  carried  in  an  ambulance  on  the  route. 
770 


MILITARY    HEROINES.  771 

Madame  Turchin  took  command  of  the  regiment  during  his  ill 
ness,  and  while  ministering  kindly  and  tenderly  to  her  husband, 
filled  his  place  admirably  as  commander  of  the  regiment.  Her 
administration  was  so  judicious  that  no  complaint  or  mutiny  was 
manifested,  and  her  commands  were  obeyed  with  the  utmost 
promptness.  In  the  battles  that  followed,  she  was  constantly 
under  fire,  now  encouraging  the  men,  and  anon  rescuing  some 
wounded  man  from  the  place  where  he  had  fallen,  administering 
restoratives  and  bringing  him  off  to  the  field-hospital.  When, 
in  consequence  of  the  "  Athens  affair,"  Colonel  Turchin  was 
court-martialed  and  an  attempt  made  by  the  conservatives  to  have 
him  driven  from  the  army,  she  hastened  to  Washington,  and  by 
her  skill  and  tact  succeeded  in  having  the  court-martial  set  aside 
and  her  husband  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  and 
confounded  his  accusers  by  bringing  his  commission  and  the  order 
to  abandon  the  trial  into  court,  just  as  the  officers  comprising  it 
were  about  to  find  him  guilty.  In  all  the  subsequent  campaigns 
at  the  West,  Madame  Turchin  was  in  the  field,  confining  herself 
usually  to  ministrations  of  mercy  to  the  wounded,  but  ready  if 
occasion  required,  to  lead  the  troops  into  action  and  always  mani 
festing  the  most  perfect  indifference  to  the  shot  and  shell  or  the 
whizzing  minie  balls  that  fell  around  her.  She  seemed  entirely 
devoid  of  fear,  and  though  so  constantly  exposed  to  the  enemy's 
fire  never  received  even  a  scratch. 

Another  remarkable  heroine  who,  while  from  the  lower  walks 
of  life,  was  yet  faithful  and  unwearied  in  her  labors,  for  the  re 
lief  of  the  soldiers  who  were  wounded  and  who  not  unfrequently 
took  her  place  in  the  ranks,  or  cheered  and  encouraged  the  men 
when  they  were  faltering  and  ready  to  retreat,  was  Bridget 
Divers,  better  known  as  "  Michigan  Bridget,"  or  among  Sheri 
dan's  men  as  "  Irish  Biddy."  A  stout  robust  Irish  woman,  she 
accompanied  the  First  Michigan  Cavalry  regiment  in  which  her 
husband  was  a  private  soldier,  to  the  field,  and  remained  with 
that  regiment  and  the  brigade  to  which  it  belonged  until  the  close 


772  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAE. 

of  the  war.  She  became  well  known  throughout  the  brigade  for 
her  fearlessness  and  daring,  and  her  skill  in  bringing  off  the 
wounded.  Occasionally  when  a  soldier  whom  she  knew  fell  in 
action,  after  rescuing  him  if  he  was  only  wounded,  she  would 
take  his  place  and  fight  as  bravely  as  the  best.  In  two  instances 
and  perhaps  more,  she  rallied  and  encouraged  retreating  troops 
and  brought  them  to  return  to  their  position,  thus  aiding  in  pre 
venting  a  defeat.  Other  instances  of  her  energy  and  courage 
are  thus  related  by  Mrs.  M.  M.  Husband,  who  knew  her  well. 

"  In  one  of  Sheridan's  grand  raids,  during  the  latter  days  of  the 
rebellion,  she,  as  usual,  rode  with  the  troops  night  and  day  wear 
ing  out  several  horses,  until  they  dropped  from  exhaustion.  In 
a  severe  cavalry  engagement,  in  which  her  regiment  took  a  promi 
nent  part,  her  colonel  was  wounded,  and  her  captain  killed.  She 
accompanied  the  former  to  the  rear,  where  she  ministered  to  his 
needs,  and  when  placed  in  the  cars,  bound  to  City  Point  Hospi 
tals,  she  remained  with  him,  giving  all  the  relief  in  her  power, 
on  that  fatiguing  journey,  although  herself  almost  exhausted, 
having  been  without  sleep  four  days  and  nights.  After  seeing 
her  colonel  safely  and  comfortably  lodged  in  the  hospital,  she 
took  one  night's  rest,  and  returned  to  the  front.  Finding  that 
her  captain's  body  had  not  been  recovered,  it  being  hazardous  to 
make  the  attempt,  she  resolved  to  rescue  it,  as  "  it  never  should 
be  left  on  rebel  soil."  So,  with  her  orderly  for  sole  companion, 
she  rode  fifteen  miles  to  the  scene  of  the  late  conflict,  found  the 
body  she  sought,  strapped  it  upon  her  horse,  rode  back  seven  miles 
to  an  embalmer's,  where  she  waited  whilst  the  body  was  em 
balmed,  then  again  strapping  it  on  her  horse,  she  rode  several 
miles  further  to  the  cars  in  which,  with  her  precious  burden  she 
proceeded  to  City  Point,  there  obtained  a  rough  coffin,  and  for 
warded  the  whole  to  Michigan.  Without  any  delay  Biddy  re 
turned  to  her  Regiment,  told  some  officials,  that  wounded  men 
had  been  left  on  the  field  from  which  she  had  rescued  her  Cap 
tain's  body.  They  did  not  credit  her  tale,  so  she  said,  "  Furnish 


MILITARY    HEROINES.  773 

ine  some  ambulances  and  I  will  bring  them  in."  The  convey 
ances  were  given  her,  she  retraced  her  steps  to  the  deserted  battle 
field,  and  soon  had  some  eight  or  ten  poor  sufferers  in  the  wagons, 
and  on  their  way  to  camp.  The  roads  were  rough,  and  their 
moans  and  cries  gave  evidence  of  intense  agony.  While  still 
some  miles  from  their  destination,  Bridget  saw  several  rebels  ap 
proaching,  she  ordered  the  drivers  to  quicken  their  pace,  and 
endeavoured  to  urge  her  horse  forward,  but  he  baulked  and  re 
fused  to  move.  The  drivers  becoming  alarmed,  deserted  their 
charge  and  fled  to  the  woods,  while  the  wounded  men  begged 
that  they  might  not  be  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  enemy,  and  to 
suffer  in  Southern  prisons.  The  rebels  soon  came  up,  Bridget 
plead  with  them  to  leave  the  sufferers  unmolested,  but  they 
laughed  at  her,  took  the  horses  from  the  ambulances,  and  such 
articles  of  value  as  the  men  possessed,  and  then  dashed  off  the 
way  they  came.  Poor  Biddy  was  almost  desperate,  darkness 
coming  on,  and  with  none  to  help  her,  the  wounded  men  beseech 
ing  her  not  to  leave  them.  Fortunately,  an  officer  of  our  army 
rode  up  to  see  what  the  matter  was,  and  soon  sent  horses  and  as 
sistance  to  the  party." 

When  the  Avar  ended,  Bridget  accompanied  her  regiment  to 
Texas,  from  whence  she  returned  with  them  to  Michigan,  but  the 
attractions  of  army  life  were  too  strong  to  be  overcome,  and  she 
has  since  joined  one  of  the  regiments  of  the  regular  army  stationed 
on  the  plains  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Mrs.  Kady  Brownell,  the  wife  of  an  Orderly  Sergeant  of  the  First 
and  afterwards  of  the  Fifth  Rhode  Island  Infantry,  who,  like 
Madame  Turchin  was  born  in  the  camp,  and  was  the  daughter  of 
a  Scottish  soldier  of  the  British  army,  was  another  of  these  half- 
soldier  heroines ;  adopting  a  semi-military  dress,  and  practicing 
daily  with  the  sword  and  rifle,  she  became  as  skillful  a  shot  and  as 
expert  a  swordsman  as  any  of  the  company  of  sharp-shooters  to 
which  she  was  attached.  Of  this  company  she  was  the  chosen 
color-bearer,  and  asking  no  indulgence,  she  marched  with  the 


774 

men,  carrying  the  flag  and  participating  in  the  battle  as  bravely 
as  any  of  her  comrades.  Inthe  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  she  stood 
by  her  colors  and  maintained  her  position  till  all  her  regiment  and 
several  others  had  retreated,  and  came  very  near  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  She  was  in  the  expedition  of  General 
Burnside  to  Roanoke  Island  and  Newbern  and  by  her  coolness 
and  intrepidity  saved  the  Fifth  Rhode  Island  from  being  fired 
upon  by  our  own  troops  by  mistake.  Her  husband  was  severely 
wounded  in  the  engagement  at  Newbern,  and  she  rescued  him 
from  his  position  of  danger  and  having  made  him  as  comfortable 
as  possible  attempted  to  rescue  others  of  the  wounded,  both  rebel 
and  Union  troops.  By  some  of  the  rebels,  both  men  and  women, 
she  was  grossly  insulted,  but  she  persevered  in  her  efforts  to  help 
the  wounded,  though  not  without  some  heart-burnings  for  their 
taunts.  Her  husband  recovering  very  slowly,  and  being  finally 
pronounced  unfit  for  service,  she  returned  to  Rhode  Island  with 
him  after  nursing  him  carefully  for  eighteen  months  or  more,  and 
received  her  discharge  from  the  army. 

There  were  very,  probably,  many  others  of  this  class  of  heroines 
who  deserve  a  place  in  our  record ;  but  there  is  great  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  the  particulars  of  their  history,  and  in  some  cases 
they  failed  to  maintain  that  unsullied  reputation  without  which 
courage  and  daring  are  of  little  worth. 


THE   WOMEN  OF    GETTYSBURG. 


HOSE  who  have  read  Miss  Georgiana  Woolsey's  charm 
ing  narrative  "  Three  Weeks  at  Gettysburg/7  in  this 
volume,  will  have  formed  a  higher  estimate  of  the 
women  of  Gettysburg  than  of  the  men.  There  were 
some  exceptions  among  the  latter,  some  brave  earnest-hearted 
men,  though  the  farmers  of  the  vicinity  were  in  general  both 
cowardly  and  covetous ;  but  the  women  of  the  village  have  won 
for  themselves  a  high  and  honorable  record,  for  their  faithfulness 
to  the  flag,  their  generosity  and  their  devotion  to  the  wounded. 

Chief  among  these,  since  she  gave  her  life  for  the  cause,  we 
must  reckon  MRS.  JENNIE  WADE.  Her  house  was  situated  in 
the  valley  between  Oak  Ridge  and  Seminary  Hill,  and  was 
directly  in  range  of  the  guns  of  both  armies.  But  Mrs.  Wade 
was  intensely  patriotic  and  loyal,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  of  the  battle,  that  terrible  Friday,  July  3,  she  volunteered  to 
bake  bread  for  the  Union  troops.  The  morning  passed  without 
more  than  an  occasional  shot,  and  though  in  the  midst  of  danger, 
she  toiled  over  her  bread,  and  had  succeeded  in  baking  a  large 
quantity.  About  two  o'clock,  P.  M.,  began  that  fearful  artillery 
battle  which  seemed  to  the  dwellers  in  that  hitherto  peaceful 
valley  to  shake  both  earth  and  heaven.  Louder  and  more  deaf 
ening  crashed  the  thunder  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  cannon, 
but  as  each  discharge  shook  her  humble  dwelling,  she  still  toiled 
on  unterrified  and  only  intent  011  her  patriotic  task.  The  rebels, 
who  were  nearest  her  had  repeatedly  ordered  her  to  quit  the 

775 


776  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

premises,  but  she  steadily  refused.  At  length  a  shot  from  the 
rebel  batteries  struck  her  in  the  breast  killing  her  instantly.  A 
rebel  officer  of  high  rank  was  killed  almost  at  the  same  moment 
near  her  door,  and  the  rebel  troops  hastily  constructing  a  rude 
coffin,  were  about  to  place  the  body  of  their  commander  in  it  for 
burial,  when,  in  the  swaying  to  and  fro  of  the  armies,  a  Union 
column  drove  them  from  the  ground,  and  finding  Mrs.  Wade 
dead,  placed  her  in  the  coffin  intended  for  the  rebel  officer.  In 
that  coffin  she  was  buried  the  next  day  amidst  the  tears  of 
hundreds  Avho  knew  her  courage  and  kindness  of  heart. 

Miss  CAKRIE  SHEADS,  the  principal  of  Oak  Eidge  Female 
Seminary,  is  also  deserving  of  a  place  in  our  record  for  her  cour 
age,  humanity  and  true  womanly  tact.  The  Seminary  buildings 
were  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  original  battle-field  of 
the  first  day's  fight,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day's  conflict,  after 
the  death  of  General  Eeynolds,  the  Union  troops  were  driven  by 
the  greatly  superior  force  of  the  enemy  into  the  grounds  of  the 
Seminary  itself,  and  most  of  them  swept  past  it.  The  Ninety- 
seventh  New  York  volunteer  infantry  commanded  on  that  day 
by  Lieutenant-Colonel,  afterwards  General  Charles  Wheelock, 
were  surrounded  by  the  enemy  in  the  Seminary  grounds,  and  after 
repeated  attempts  to  break  through  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  were 
finally  compelled  to  surrender.  Miss  Sheads  who  had  given 
her  pupils  a  holiday  on  the  previous  day,  and  had  suddenly 
found  herself  transformed  into  the  lady  superintendent  of  a  hospi 
tal,  for  the  wounded  were  brought  to  the  Seminary,  at  once  re 
ceived  Colonel  Wheelock  and  furnished  him  with  the  signal  for 
surrender.  The  rebel  commander  demanded  his  sword,  but  the 
colonel  refused  to  give  it  up,  as  it  was  a  gift  of  friends.  An  alter 
cation  ensued  and  the  rebel  officer  threatened  to  kill  Colonel 
Wheelock.  Mr.  Sheads,  Miss  Carrie's  father,  interposed  and  en 
deavored  to  prevent  the  collision,  but  was  soon  pushed  out  of  the 
way,  and  the  rebel  officer  again  presented  his  pistol  to  shoot  his 
prisoner.  Miss  Sheads  now  rushed  between  them  and  remon- 


THE   WOMEN   OF    GETTYSBURG.  777 

stratecl  with  the  rebel  on  his  inhumanity,  while  she  urged  the 
colonel  to  give  up  his  sword.  He  still  refused,  and  at  this  moment 
the  entrance  of  other  prisoners  attracted  the  attention  of  the  rebel 
officer  for  a  few  moments,  when  Miss  Sheads  unbuckled  his  sword 
and  concealed  it  in  the  folds  of  her  dress  unnoticed  by  the  rebel 
officer.  Colonel  Wheeloek,  when  the  attention  of  his  foe  was 
again  turned  to  him,  said  that  one  of  his  men  who  had  passed 
out  had  his  sword,  and  the  rebel  officer  ordered  him  with  the 
other  prisoners  to  march  to  the  rear.  Five  days  after  the  battle 
the  colonel,  who  had  made  his  escape  from  the  rebels,  returned  to 
the  Seminary,  when  Miss  Sheads  returned  his  sword,  with  which 
he  did  gallant  service  subsequently. 

The  Seminary  buildings  were  crowded  with  wounded,  mostly 
rebels,  who  remained  there  for  many  weeks  and  were  kindly 
cared  for  by  Miss  Sheads  and  her  pupils.  The  rebel  chief  under 
took  to  use  the  building  and  its  observatory  as  a  signal  station 
for  his  army,  contrary  to  Miss  Sheads'  remonstrances,  and  drew 
the  fire  of  the  Union  army  upon  it  by  so  doing.  The  buildings 
were  hit  many  times  and  perforated  by  two  shells.  But  amid 
the  danger,  Miss  Sheads  was  as  calm  and  self-possessed  as  in  her 
ordinary  duties,  and  soothed  some  of  her  pupils  who  were  terrified 
by  the  hurtling  shells.  From  the  grounds  of  the  Seminary  she 
and  several  of  her  pupils  witnessed  the  terrible  conflict  of  Friday. 
The  severe  exertion  necessary  for  the  care  of  so  large  a  number 
of  wounded,  for  so  long  a  period,  resulted  in  the  permanent  injury 
of  Miss  Sheads'  health,  and  she  has  been  since  that  time  an  in 
valid.  Two  of  her  brothers  were  slain  in  the  war,  and  two  others 
disabled  for  life.  Few  families  have  made  greater  sacrifices  in 
the  national  cause. 

Another  young  lady  of  Gettysburg,  Miss  Amelia  Harmon,  a 
pupil  of  Miss  Sheads,  displayed  a  rare  heroism  under  circum 
stances  of  trial.  The  house  where  she  resided  with  her  aunt  was 
the  best  dwelling-house  in  the  vicinity  of  Gettysburg,  and  about 
a  mile  west  of  the  village,  on  Oak  or  Seminary  Ridge.  During 


778  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

the  fighting  on  Wednesday  (the  first  day  of  the  battle)  it  was  for 
a  time  forcibly  occupied  by  the  Union  sharp-shooters  who  fired 
upon  the  rebels  from  it.  Towards  evening  the  Union  troops 
having  retreated  to  Cemetery  Hill,  the  house  came  into  possession 
of  the  rebels,  who  bade  the  family  leave  it  as  they  were  about  to 
burn  it,  in  consequence  of  its  having  been  used  as  a  fort.  Miss 
Harmon  and  her  aunt  both  protested  against  this,  explaining  that 
the  occupation  was  forcible  and  not  with  their  consent.  The 
young  lady  added  that  her  mother,  not  now  living,  was  a  South 
ern  woman,  and  that  she  should  blush  for  her  parentage  if  Southern 
men  would  thus  fire  the  house  of  defenseless  females,  and  deprive 
them  of  a  home  in  the  midst  of  battle.  One  of  the  rebels, 
upon  this,  approached  her  and  proposed  in  a  confidential  way, 
that  if  she  would  prove  that  she  was  not  a  renegade  Southerner 
by  hurrahing  for  the  Southern  Confederacy,  he  would  see  what 
could  be  done.  "  Never !"  was  the  indignant  reply  of  the  truly 
loyal  girl,  "  burn  the  house  if  you  will !  I  will  never  do  that, 
while  the  Union  which  has  protected  me  and  my  friends,  exists/' 
The  rebels  at  once  fired  the  house,  and  the  brave  girl  and  her 
aunt  made  their  way  to  the  home  of  friends,  running  the  gauntlet 
of  the  fire  of  both  armies,  and  both  were  subsequently  unwearied 
in  their  labors  for  the  wounded. 


LOYAL  WOMEN  OF  THE  SOUTH. 


E  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention  some  of  those 
whose  labors  had  been  conspicuous,  and  especially  Mrs. 
Sarah  R.  Johnson,  Mrs.  Nellie  M.  Taylor,  Mrs.  Grier, 
Mrs.  Clapp,  Miss  Breckinridge,  Mrs.  Phelps,  Mrs. 
Shepard  Wells,  and  others.  There  was  however,  beside  these,  a 
large  class,  even  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  rebellion,  who  not  only 
never  bowed  their  knee  to  the  idol  of  secession,  but  who  for  their 
fidelity  to  principle,  their  patient  endurance  of  proscription  and 
their  humanity  and  helpfulness  to  Union  men,  and  especially 
Union  prisoners,  are  deserving  of  all  honor. 

The  loyal  women  of  Richmond  were  a  noble  band.  Amid 
obloquy,  persecution  and  in  some  cases  imprisonment  (one  of  them 
was  imprisoned  for  nine  months  for  aiding  Union  prisoners)  they 
never  faltered  in  their  allegiance  to  the  old  flag,  nor  in  their  sym 
pathy  and  services  to  the  Union  prisoners  at  Libby  and  Belle 
Isle,  and  Castle  Thunder.  With  the  aid  of  twenty-one  loyal 
white  men  in  Richmond  they  raised  a  fund  of  thirteen  thousand 
dollars  in  gold,  to  aid  Union  prisoners,  while  their  gifts  of  cloth 
ing,  food  and  luxuries,  were  of  much  greater  value.  Some  of 
these  ladies  were  treated  with  great  cruelty  by  the  rebels,  and 
finally  driven  from  the  city,  but  no  one  of  them  ever  proved 
false  to  loyalty.  In  Charleston,  too,  hot-bed  of  the  rebellion  as 
it  was,  there  was  a  Union  league,  of  which  the  larger  proportion 
were  women,  some  of  them  wives  or  daughters  of  prominent 
rebels,  who  dared  everything,  even  their  life,  their  liberty  and 

779 


780  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAE. 

their  social  position,  to  render  aid  and  comfort  to  the  Union 
soldiers,  and  to  facilitate  the  return  of  a  government  of  liberty 
and  law.  Had  we  space  we  might  fill  many  pages  with  the  heroic 
deeds  of  these  noble  women.  Through  their  assistance,  scores  of 
Union  men  were  enabled  to  make  their  escape  from  the  prisons, 
some  of  them  under  fire,  in  which  they  were  confined,  and  often 
after  almost  incredible  sufferings,  to  find  their  way  to  the  Union 
lines.  Others  suffering  from  the  frightful  jail  fever  or  wasted  by 
privation  and  wearisome  marches  with  little  or  no  food,  received 
from  them  food  and  clothing,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  maintain 
existence  till  the  time  for  their  liberation  came.  The  negro 
women  were  far  more  generally  loyal  than  their  mistresses,  and 
their  ready  wit  enabled  them  to  render  essential  service  to  the 
loyal  whites,  service  for  which,  when  detected,  they  often  suffered 
cruel  tortures,  whipping  and  sometimes  death. 

In  New  Orleans,  before  the  occupation  of  the  city  by  the  Union 
troops  under  General  Butler,  no  woman  could  declare  herself  a 
Unionist  without  great  personal  peril ;  but  as  we  have  seen  there 
were  those  who  risked  all  for  their  attachment  to  the  Union  even 
then.  Mrs.  Taylor  was  by  no  means  the  only  outspoken  Union 
woman  of  the  city,  though  she  may  have  been  the  most  fearless. 
Mrs.  Minnie  Don  Carlos,  the  wife  of  a  Spanish  gentleman  of  the 
city,  was  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  a  decided  Union  woman, 
and  after  its  occupation  by  Union  troops  was  a  constant  and  faith 
ful  visitor  at  the  hospitals  and  rendered  great  service  to  Union 
soldiers.  Mrs.  Flanders,  wife  of  Hon.  Benjamin  Flanders,  and 
her  two  daughters,  Miss  Florence  and  Miss  Fanny  Flanders  were 
also  well  known  for  their  persistent  Unionism  and  their  abundant 
labors  for  the  sick  and  wounded.  Mrs.  and  Miss  Carrie  Wolfley, 
Mrs.  Dr.  Kirchner,  Mrs.  Mills,  Mrs.  Bryden,  Mrs.  Barnett  and 
Miss  Bennett,  Mrs.  Wibrey,  Mrs.  Richardson,  Mrs.  Hodge,  Mrs. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  Howell,  Mrs.  Charles  Howe  of  Key  West,  and 
Miss  Edwards  from  Massachusetts,  were  all  faithful  and  earnest 
workers  in  the  hospitals  throughout  the  war,  and  Union  women 


JLOYAL    WOMEN    OF    THE    SOUTH.  781 

when  their  Unionism  involved  peril.  Miss  Sarah  Chappell,  Miss 
Cordelia  Baggett  and  Miss  Ella  Gallagher,  also  merit  the  same 
com  menda tion . 

ISTor  should  we  fail  to  do  honor  to  those  loyal  women  in  the 
mountainous  districts  and  towns  of  the  interior  of  the  South. 
Our  prisoners  as  they  were  inarched  through  the  towns  of  the 
South  always  found  some  tender  pitying  hearts,  ready  to  do  some 
thing  for  their  comfort,  if  it  were  only  a  cup  of  cold  water  for 
their  parched  lips,  or  a  corn  dodger  slyly  slipped  into  their  hand. 
Oftentimes  these  humble  but  patriotic  women  received  cruel 
abuse,  not  only  from  the  rebel  soldiers,  but  from  rebel  Southern 
women,  who,  though  perhaps  wealthier  and  in  more  exalted  social 
position  than  those  whom  they  scorned,  had  not  their  tenderness  of 
heart  or  their  real  refinement.  Indeed  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
in  history,  even  among  the  fierce  brutal  women  of  the  French 
revolution,  any  record  of  conduct  more  absolutely  fiendish  than 
that  of  some  of  the  women  of  the  South  during  the  war.  They 
insisted  on  the  murder  of  helpless  prisoners ;  in  some  instances 
shot  them  in  cold  blood  themselves,  besought  their  lovers  and 
husbands  to  bring  them  Yankee  skulls,  scalps  and  bones,  for 
ornaments,  betrayed  innocent  men  to  death,  engaged  in  intrigues 
and  schemes  of  all  kinds  to  obtain  information  of  the  movements 
of  Union  troops,  to  convey  it  to  the  enemy,  and  in  every  mani 
festation  of  malice,  petty  spite  and  diabolical  hatred  against  the 
flag  under  which  they  had  been  reared,  and  its  defenders,  they  at 
tained  a  bad  pre-eminence  over  the  evil  spirits  of  their  sex  since 
the  world  began.  It  is  true  that  these  were  not  the  characteristics 
of  all  Southern,  disloyal  women,  but  they  were  sufficiently  com 
mon  to  make  the  rebel  women  of  the  south  the  objects  of  scorn 
among  the  people  of  enlightened  nations.  Many  of  these 
patriotic  loyal  women,  of  the  mountainous  districts,  rendered 
valuable  aid  to  our  escaping  soldiers,  as  well  as  to  the  Union 
scouts  who  were*  in  many  cases  their  own  kinsmen.  Messrs. 
Richardson  and  Browne,  the  Tribune  correspondents  so  long  im- 


782  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

prisoned,  have  given  due  honor  to  one  of  this  class,  "  the  nameless 
heroine"  as  they  call  her,  Miss  Melvina  Stevens,  a  young  and 
beautiful  girl  who  from  the  age  of  fourteen  had  guided  escaping 
Union  prisoners  past  the  most  dangerous  of  the  rebel  garrisons 
and  outposts,  on  the  borders  of  North  Carolina  and  East  Tennes 
see,  at  the  risk  of  her  liberty  and  life,  solely  from  her  devotion 
to  the  national  cause.  The  mountainous  regions  of  East  Ten 
nessee,  Northern  Alabama  and  Northern  Georgia  were  the  home 
of  many  of  these  loyal  and  energetic  Union  women — women,  who 
in  the  face  of  privation,  persecution,  death  and  sometimes  out 
rages  worse  than  death,  kept  up  the  courage  and  patriotic  ardor 
of  their  husbands,  brothers  and  lovers,  and  whose  lofty  self- 
sacrificing  courage  no  rebel  cruelties  or  indignities  could  weaken 
or  abate. 


MISS    HETTY  A.  JONES.* 


MONG  the  thousands  of  noble  women  who  devoted 
their  time  and  services  to  the  cause  of  our  suffering 
soldiers  during  the  rebellion  there  were  few  who  sacri 
ficed  more  of  comfort,  money  or  health,  than  Miss 
Hetty  A.  Jones  of  Roxborough,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  Horatio  Gates  Jones,  DJX, 
for  many  years  pastor  of  the  Lower  Merion  Baptist  Church,  and 
a  sister  of  the  Hon.  J.  Richter  Jones,  who  was  Colonel  of  the 
Fifty-eighth  Regiment  Pennsylvania  Volunteers,  and  who  was 
killed  at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  near  Newbern,  N.  C.,  in  May, 
1863,  and  grand-daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  David  Jones,  a  revo 
lutionary  chaplain,  eminently  patriotic. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  Miss  Jones  freely  gave  of 
her  means  to  equip  the  companies  which  were  organized  in  her 
own  neighborhood,  and  when  the  news  came  of  the  death  of  her 
brave  oldest  brother,  although  for  a  time  shocked  by  the  occur 
rence,  she  at  once  devoted  her  time  and  means  to  relieve  the 
wants  of  the  suffering.  She  attached  herself  to  the  Filbert 
Street  Hospital  in  Philadelphia,  and  thither  she  went  for  weeks 
and  months,  regardless  of  her  own  comfort  or  health.  Naturally 
of  a  bright  and  cheerful  disposition,  she  carried  these  qualities 
into  her  work,  and  wherever  she  went  she  dispensed  joy  and 


*  The  sketch  of  Miss  Jones  belonged  appropriately  in  Part  II.  but  the  ma 
terials  for  it  were  not  received  till  that  part  of  the  work  was  printed,  and  we 
are  therefore  under  the  necessity  of  inserting  it  here. 

783 


784  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

gladness,  and  the  sick  men  seemed  to  welcome  her  presence. 
One  who  had  abundant  means  of  observing,  bears  testimony  to 
the  power  of  her  brave  heart  and  her  pleasant  winning  smile. 
He  says,  "  I  have  often  seen  her  sit  and  talk  away  the  pain,  and 
make  glad  the  heart  of  the  wounded."  Nor  did  she  weary  in 
well-doing.  Her  services  at  the  hospital  were  constant  and  effi 
cient,  and  when  she  heard  of  any  sick  soldier  in  her  village  she 
would  visit  him  there  and  procure  medicine  and  comforts  for 
him. 

In  the  fall  of  1864  she  accompanied  a  friend  to  Fortress 
Monroe  to  meet  his  sick  and  wounded  son,  and  thus  was  led  to 
see  more  of  the  sufferings  of  our  brave  patriots.  On  returning 
home  she  expressed  a  wish  to  go  to  the  front,  and  although 
dissuaded  on  account  of  her  delicate  health,  she  felt  it  to  be 
her  duty  to  go,  and  accordingly  on  the  2d  of  November,  1864,  she 
started  on  her  errand  of  mercy,  to  City  Point,  Ya.,  the  Head 
quarters  of  General  Grant.  The  same  untiring  energy,  the 
same  forgetfulness  of  self,  the  same  devotion  to  the  sick  and 
wounded,  were  exhibited  by  her  in  this  new  and  arduous  field  of 
labor.  She  became  attached  to  the  Third  Division  Second  Corps 
Hospital  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  at  once  secured  the 
warm  affections  of  the  soldiers. 

She  continued  her  work  with  unremitting  devotion  until  the 
latter  part  of  November,  when  she  had  an  attack  of  pleurisy, 
caused  no  doubt,  by  her  over  exertions  in  preparing  for  the  soldiers 
a  Thanksgiving  Dinner.  On  her  partial  recovery  she  wrote  to 
a  friend,  describing  her  tent  and  its  accommodations.  She  said  : 
"  When  I  was  sick,  I  did  want  some  home  comforts ;  my  straw 
bed  was  very  hard.  But  even  that  difficulty  was  met.  A  kind 
lady  procured  some  pillows  from  the  Christian  Commission,  and 
sewed  them  together,  and  made  me  a  soft  bed.  But  I  did  not 
complain,  for  I  was  so  much  better  off  than  the  sick  boys."  The 
italics  are  ours,  not  hers.  She  never  put  her  own  ease  before  her 
care  for  "the  sick  boys." 


MISS    HETTY    A.  JONES.  785 

She  not  only  attended  to  the  temporal  comforts  of  the  soldiers, 
but  she  was  equally  interested  in  their  spiritual  welfare,  and  was 
wont  to  go  to  the  meetings  of  the  Christian  Commission.  Her 
letters  home  and  to  her  friends,  were  full  of  details  of  these  meet 
ings,  and  her  heart  overflowed  with  Christian  love  as  she  spoke  of 
the  brave  soldiers  rising  in  scores  to  ask  for  the  prayers  of  God's 
people. 

She  continued  her  labors,  as  far  as  possible,  on  her  recovery, 
but  was  unable  to  do  all  that  her  heart  prompted  her  to  attempt. 
She  was  urged  by  her  friends  at  home  to  return  and  recruit  her 
strength.  In  her  brief  journal  she  alludes  to  this,  but  says, 
"  Another  battle  is  expected  ;  and  then  our  poor  crippled  boys 
will  need  all  the  care  that  we  can  give.  God  grant  that  we  may 
do  something  for  them  !" 

Two  days  after  writing  this,  in  her  chilly,  leaking  tent,  she  was 
prostrated  again.  She  was  unwilling  at  first  that  her  family 
should  be  made  uneasy  by  sending  for  them.  But  her  disease 
soon  began  to  make  rapid  and  alarming  progress.  She  consented 
that  they  should  be  summoned.  But  on  the  21st  of  December, 
1864,  the  day  after  this  consent  was  obtained,  she  passed  away  to 
her  rest.  Like  a  faithful  soldier,  she  died  at  her  post. 

She  was  in  early  life  led  to  put  her  trust  in  Christ,  and  was 
baptized  about  thirty  years  ago,  by  her  father,  on  confession  of 
her  faith.  She  continued  from  that  time  a  loved  member  of  the 
Lower  Merion  Baptist  church.  In  her  last  hours  she  still  rested 
with  a  calm,  child-like  composure  on  the  finished  work  of  Christ. 
Though  called  to  die,  with  none  of  her  own  kindred  about  her, 
she  was  blessed  with  the  presence  of  her  Lord,  who,  having  loved 
his  own,  loves  them  unto  the  end. 

Her  remains  were  laid  beside  those  of  her  father,  in  the  ceme 
tery  of  the  Baptist  church  at  Roxborough,  Pa.,  on  Friday,  the 
30th  of  December,  1864.  A  number  of  the  convalescent  soldiers 
from  the  Filbert  Street  Hospital  in  the  city,  with  which  she  was 
connected,  attended  her  funeral ;  and  her  bier  was  borne  by  four 

99 


786  WOMAN'S   WORK    IN   THE   CIVIL    WAR. 

of  those  who  had  so  far  recovered  as  to  be  able  to  perform  this 
last  office  for  their  departed  friend. 

Her  memory  will  long  be  cherished  by  those  who  knew  her 
best,  and  tears  often  shed  over  her  grave  by  the  brave  soldiers 
whom  she  nursed  in  their  sickness. 

The  soldiers  of  the  Filbert  Street  Hospital,  on  receiving  the 
intelligence  of  her  death,  met  and  passed  resolutions  expressive 
of  their  high  esteem  and  reverence  for  her  who  had  been  their 
faithful  and  untiring  friend,  and  deep  sympathy  with  her  friends 
in  their  loss. 


FINAL    CHAPTER. 

THE  FAITHFUL  BUT  LESS  CONSPICUOUS  LABORERS, 


O  abundant  and  universal  was  the  patriotism  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  loyal  women  of  the  nation  that  the 
long  list  of  heroic  names  whose  deeds  of  mercy  we 
have  recorded  in  the  preceding  pages  gives  only  a  very 
inadequate  idea  of  woman's  work  in  the  war.  These  were  but 
the  generals  or  at  most  the  commanders  of  regiments,  and  staff- 
officers,  while  the  great  army  of  patient  workers  followed  in  their 
train.  In  every  department  of  philanthropic  labor  there  were 
hundreds  and  in  some,  thousands,  less  conspicuous  indeed  than 
these,  but  not  less  deserving.  We  regret  that  the  necessities  of 
the  case  compel  us  to  pass  by  so  many  of  these  without  notice, 
and  to  give  to  others  of  whom  we  know  but  little  beyond  their 
names,  only  a  mere  mention. 

Among  those  who  were  distinguished  for  services  in  field,  camp 
or  army  hospitals,  not  already  named,  were  the  following,  most  of 
whom  rendered  efficient  service  at  Antietam  or  at  the  Xaval 
Academy  Hospital  at  Annapolis.  Some  of  them  were  also  at 
City  Point ;  Miss  Mary  Gary,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  her  sister, 
most  faithful  and  efficient  nurses  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  as 
worthy  doubtless,  of  a  more  prominent  position  in  this  work  as 
many  others  found  in  the  preceding  pages,  Miss  Agnes  Gillis,  of 
Lowell,  Mass.,  Mrs.  Guest,  of  Buffalo,  X.  Y.,  Miss  Maria  Josslyn, 
of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  Miss  Ruth  L.  Ellis,  of  Bridgewater,  Mass., 

787 


788  WOMAN'S  WORK  ix  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Miss  Kate  P.  Thompson,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  whose  labors  at 
Annapolis,  have  probably  made  her  permanently  an  invalid,  Miss 
Eudora  Clark,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  Miss  Sarah  Allen,  of  AVil bra- 
ham,  Mass.,  Miss  Emily  Gove,  of  Peru,  N.  Y.,  Miss  Caroline 
Cox,  of  Mott  Haven,  N.  Y.,  first  at  David's  Island  and  after 
ward  at  Beverly  Hospital,  N.  J.,  with  Mrs.  Gibbons,  Miss 
Charlotte  Ford,  of  Morristown,  N.  J.,  Miss  Ella  Woleott,  of 
Elmira,  N.  Y.,  who  was  at  the  hospitals  near  Fortress  Monroe, 
for  some  time,  and  subsequently  at  Point  Lookout. 

Another  corps  of  faithful  hospital  workers  were  those  in  the 
Benton  Barracks  and  other  hospitals,  in  and  near  St.  Louis.  Of 
some  of  these,  subsequently  engaged  in  other  fields  of  labor  we 
have  already  spoken ;  a  few  others  merit  special  mention  for  their 
extraordinary  faithfulness  and  assiduity  in  the  service ;  Miss 
Emily  E.  Parsons,  the  able  lady  superintendent  of  the  Benton 
Barracks  Hospital,  gives  her  testimony  to  the  efficiency  and  excel 
lent  spirit  of  the  following  ladies ;  Miss  S.  R.  Lovell,  of  Gales- 
burg,  Michigan,  whose  labors  began  in  the  hospitals  near  Nash 
ville,  Tennessee,  and  in  1864  was  transferred  to  Benton  Barracks, 
but  was  almost  immediately  prostrated  by  illness,  and  after  her 
recovery  returned  to  the  Tennessee  hospitals.  Her  gentle  sym 
pathizing  manners,  and  her  kindness  to  the  soldiers  won  for  her 
their  regard  and  gratitude. 

Miss  Lucy  J.  Bissell,  of  Meremec,  St.  Louis  County,  Mo., 
offered  her  services  as  volunteer  nurse  as  soon  as  the  call  for 
nurses  in  1861,  was  issued ;  and  was  first  sent  to  one  of  the  regi 
mental  hospitals  at  Cairo,  in  July,  1861,  afterward  to  Bird's  Point, 
where  she  lived  in  a  tent  and  subsisted  on  the  soldiers'  rations,  for 
more  than  a  year.  After  a  short  visit  home  she  was  sent  in 
January,  1863,  by  the  Sanitary  Commission  to  Paducah,  Ky., 
where  she  remained  till  the  following  October.  In  February,  1864, 
she  was  assigned  to  Benton  Barracks  Hospital  where  she  continued 
till  June  1st,  1864,  except  a  short  sickness  contracted  by  hospital 
service.  In  July,  1864,  she  was  transferred  to  Jefferson  Barracks 


FINAL    CHAPTER.  789 

Hospital  and  continued  there  till  June,  1865,  and  that  hospital 
being  closed,  served  a  month  or  two  longer,  in  one  of  the  others, 
in  which  some  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  were  still  left.  Many 
hundreds  of  the  soldiers  will  testify  to  her  untiring  assiduity  in 
caring  for  them. 

Mrs.  Arabella  Tannehill,  of  Iowa,  after  many  months  of  as 
siduous  work  at  the  Benton  Barracks  Hospital,  went  to  the  Nash 
ville  hospitals,  where  she  performed  excellent  service,  being  a 
most  conscientious  and  faithful  nurse,  and  winning  the  regard  and 
esteem  of  all  those  under  her  charge. 

Mrs.  Rebecca  S.  Smith,  of  Chelsea,  111.,  the  wife  of  a  soldier 
in  the  army,  had  acquitted  herself  so  admirably  at  the  Post  Hos 
pital  of  Benton  Barracks,  that  one  of  the  surgeons  of  the  General 
Hospital,  who  had  formerly  been  surgeon  of  the  Post,  requested 
Mi.ss  Parsons  to  procure  her  services  for  his  ward.  She  did  so, 
and  found  her  a  most  excellent  and  skillful  nurse. 

Mrs.  Caroline  E.  Gray,  of  Illinois,  had  also  a  husband  in  the 
army ;  she  was  a  long  time  at  Benton  Barracks  and  was  one  of 
the  best  nurses  there,  an  estimable  woman  in  every  respect. 

Miss  Adeline  A.  Lane,  of  Quincy,  111.,  a  teacher  before  the 
war,  came  to  Benton  Barracks  Hospital  in  the  Spring  of  1863, 
and  after  a  service  of  many  months  there,  returned  to  her  home 
at  Quincy,  where  she  devoted  her  attention  to  the  care  of  the  sick 
and  wounded  soldiers  sent  there,  and  accomplished  great  good. 

Miss  Martha  Adams,  of  New  York  city,  was  long  employed 
in  the  Fort  Schuyler  Hospital  and  subsequently  at  Benton 
Barracks,  and  was  a  woman  of  rare  devotion  to  her  work. 

Miss  Jennie  Tileston  Spaulding,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  was  for  a 
long  period  at  Fort  Schuyler  Hospital,  where  she  was  much 
esteemed,  and  after  her  return  home  busied  herself  in  caring  for 
the  families  of  soldiers  around  her. 

Miss  E.  M.  King,  of  Omaha,  Nebraska,  was  a  very  faithful 
and  excellent  nurse  at  the  Benton  Barracks  Hospital. 

Mrs.  Juliana  Day,  the  wife  of  a  surgeon  in  one  of  the  Nash- 


790 

ville  hDspitals,  acted  as  a  volunteer  nurse  for  them,  and  by  her 
protracted  services  there  impaired  her  health  and  died  before  the 
close  of  the  war. 

Other  efficient  nurses  appointed  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Com 
mission  (and  there  were  none  more  efficient  anywhere)  were,  Miss 
Carrie  C.  McNair,  Miss  N.  A.  Shepard,  Miss  C.  A.  Harwood, 
Miss  Rebecca  M.  Craighead,  Miss  Ida  Johnson,  Mrs.  Dorothea 
Ogelen,  Miss  Harriet  N.  Phillips,  Mrs.  A.  Reese,  Mrs.  Maria 
Brooks,  Mrs.  Mary  Otis,  Miss  Harriet  Peabody,  Mrs.  M.  A. 
Wells,  Mrs.  Florence  P.  Sterling,  Miss  N.  L.  Ostram,  Mrs.  Anne 
Ward,  Miss  Isabella  M.  Hartshorn,  Mrs.  Mary  Ellis,  Mrs.  L.  E. 
Lathrop,  Miss  Louisa  Otis,  Mrs.  Lydia  Leach,  Mrs.  Mary 
Andrews,  Mrs.  Mary  Ludlow,  Mrs.  Hannah  A.  Haines  and  Mrs. 
Mary  Allen.  Most  of  these  were  from  St.  Louis  or  its  vicinity. 

The  following,  also  for  the  most  part  from  St.  Louis,  were  ap 
pointed  somewhat  later  by  the  Western  Sanitary  Commission,  but 
rendered  excellent  service.  Mrs.  M.  I.  Ballard,  Mrs.  E.  O.  Gib 
son,  Mrs.  L.  D.  Aldrich,  Mrs.  Houghton,  Mrs.  Sarah  A.  Barton, 
Mrs.  Olive  Freeman,  Mrs.  Anne  M.  Shattuck,  Mrs.  E.  C.  Bren- 
dell,  Mrs.  E.  J.  Morris,  Miss  Fanny  Marshall,  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
A.  Nichols,  Mrs.  H.  A.  Reid,  Mrs.  Reese,  Mrs.  M.  A.  Stetler, 
Mrs.  M.  J.  Dykeman,  Misses  Marian  and  Clara  McClintock, 
Mrs.  Sager,  Mrs.  Peabody,  Mrs.  C.  C.  Hagar,  Mrs.  J.  E.  Hickox, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  Campbell,  Miss  Deborah  Dougherty  and  Mrs.  Ferris. 

As  in  other  cities,  many  ladies  of  high  social  position,  devoted 
themselves  with  great  assiduity  to  voluntary  visiting  and 
nursing  at  the  hospitals.  Among  these  were  Mrs.  Chauncey  I. 
Filley,  wife  of  Mayor  Filley,  Mrs.  Robert  Anderson,  wife  of 
General  Anderson,  Mrs.  Jessie  B.  Fremont,  wife  of  General 
Fremont,  Mrs.  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  wife  of  General  Fisk,  Mrs.  E. 
M.  Webber,  Mrs.  A.  M.  Clark,  Mrs.  John  Campbell,  Mrs. 
W.  F.  Cozzens,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Davis,  Miss  S.  F.  McCracken, 
Miss  Anna  M.  Debenham,  since  deceased,  Miss  Susan  Bell,  Miss 
Charlotte  Ledergerber,  Mrs.  S.  C.  Davis,  Mrs.  Hazard,  Mrs.  T.  D. 


FIXAL   CHAPTER.  791 

Edgar,  Mrs.  George  Partridge,  Miss  E.  A.  Hart,  since  deceased, 
Mrs.  H.  A.  Nelson,  Mrs.  F.  A.  Holden,  Mrs.  Hicks,  Mrs.  Baily, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Jones,  Mrs.  C.  V.  Barker,  Miss  Bettie  Brodhead, 
Mrs.  T.  M.  Post,  Mrs.  E.  J.  Page,  Miss  Jane  Patrick,  since  de 
ceased,  Mrs.  R.  H.  Stone,  Mrs.  C.  P.  Coolidge,  Mrs.  S.  R.  Ward, 
Mrs.  Washington  King,  Mrs.  Wyllys  King,  Miss  Fales,  since 
deceased. 

The  following  were  among  the  noble  women  at  Springfield,  111., 
who  were  most  devoted  in  their  labors  for  the  soldier  in  forward 
ing  sanitary  supplies,  in  visiting  the  hospitals  in  and  near  Spring 
field,  in  sustaining  the  Soldiers'  Home  in  that  city,  and  in  aiding 
the  families  of  soldiers.  Mrs.  Lucretia  Jane  Tilton,  Miss  Cath 
arine  Tilton,  Mrs.  Lucretia  P.  Wood,  Mrs.  P.  C.  Latham,  Mrs. 
M.  E.  Halbert,  Mrs.  Zimmerman,  Mrs.  J.  D.  B.  Salter,  Mrs.  John 
Ives,  Mrs.  Mary  Engleman,  Mrs.  Paul  Selby,  Mrs.  S.  H.  Mclvin, 
Mrs.  Stoneberger,  Mrs.  Schaums,  Mrs.  E.  Curtiss,  Mrs.  L.  Snell, 
Mrs.  J.  Nutt  and  Mrs.  J.  P.  Reynolds.  Mrs.  R.  H.  Bennison, 
of  Quincy,  111.,  was  also  a  faithful  hospital  visitor  and  friend  of 
the  soldier.  Mrs.  Dr.  Ely,  of  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  efficient  in 
every  good  work  throughout  the  war,  and  at  its  close  the  active 
promoter  and  superintendent  of  a  Home  for  Soldiers'  Orphans, 
near  Davenport,  Iowa,  is  deserving  of  all  honor. 

Miss  Georgiana  Willets,  of  Jersey  City,  N.  J.,  a  faithful  and 
earnest  helper  at  the  front  from  1864  to  the  end  of  the  war, 
deserves  especial  mention,  as  do  also  Miss  Molineux,  sister  of 
General  Molineux  and  Miss  McCabe,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who 
were,  throughout  the  war,  active  in  aiding  the  soldiers  by  all  the 
means  in  their  power.  Miss  Sophronia  Bucklin,  of  Auburn,  N. 
Y.,  an  untiring  and  patient  worker  among  the  soldiers  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  also  deserves  a  place  in  our  record. 

Cincinnati  had  a  large  band  of  noble  hospital  workers,  women 
who  gave  freely  of  their  own  property  as  well  as  their  personal 
services  for  the  care  and  comfort  of  the  soldier.  Among 
these  were,  Mrs.  Crafts  J.  Wright,  wife  of  Colonel  Crafts 


792  WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

J.  Wright,  was  among  the  first  hospital  visitors  of  the  city, 
and  was  unwearied  in  her  efforts  to  provide  comforts  for  the 
soldiers  in  the  general  hospitals  of  the  city  as  \vell  as  for  the  sick 
or  wounded  soldiers  of  her  husband's  regiment  in  the  field.  Mrs. 
C.  W.  Starbuck,  Mrs.  Peter  Gibson,  Mrs.  William  Woods  and 
Mrs.  Caldwell,  were  also  active  in  visiting  the  hospitals  and  gave 
largely  to  the  soldiers  who  were  sick  there.  Miss  Pen  field  and 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  S.  Comstock,  of  Michigan,  Mrs.  C.  E.  Russell,  of 
Detroit,  Mrs.  Harriet  B.  Dame,  of  Wisconsin  and  the  Misses 
llexford,  of  Illinois,  were  remarkably  efficient,  not  only  in  the 
hospitals  at  home,  but  at  the  front,  where  they  were  long  engaged 
in  caring  for  the  soldiers. 

From  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y.,  Miss  Elizabeth  L.  Porter,  sister  of 
the  late  gallant  Colonel  Peter  A.  Porter,  went  to  the  Baltimore 
Hospitals  and  for  nineteen  months  devoted  her  time  and  her 
ample  fortune  to  the  service  of  the  soldiers,  with  an  assiduity 
wrhich  has  rendered  her  an  invalid  ever  since. 

In  Louisville,  Ky.,  Mrs.  Menefee  and  Mrs.  Smith,  wife  of 
the  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for  the  diocese  of 
Kentucky,  were  the  leaders  of  a  faithful  band  of  hospital  visitors 
in  that  city. 

Boston  was  filled  with  patriotic  women ;  to  name  them  all 
would  be  almost  like  publishing  a  directory  of  the  city.  Mrs. 
Lowell,  who  gave  two  sons  to  the  war,  both  of  whom  were 
slain  at  the  head  of  their  commands,  was  herself  one  of  the 
most  zealous  laborers  in  behalf  of  the  soldier  in  Boston  or 
its  vicinity.  Like  Miss  Wormeley  and  Miss  Gilson,  she  took  a 
contract  for  clothing  from  the  government,  to  provide  work  for 
the  soldiers'  families,  preparing  the  work  for  them  and  giving 
them  more  than  she  received.  Her  daughter,  Miss  Anna  Lowell, 
was  on  one  of  the  Hospital  Transports  in  the  Peninsula,  and  ar 
rived  at  Harrison's  Landing,  where  she  met  the  news  of  her 
brother's  death  in  the  battles  of  the  Seven  Days,  but  burying 
her  sorrows  in  her  heart,  she  took  charge  of  a  ward  on  the  Trans- 


FIXAL    CHAPTER.  793 

port  when  it  returned,  and  from  the  summer  of  1862  till  the 
close  of  the  war  was  in  charge  as  lady  superintendent,  of  the 
Armory  Square  Hospital,  Washington.  Other  ladies  hardly  less 
active  wTere  Mrs.  Amelia  L.  Holmes,  wife  of  the  poet  and  essayist, 
Miss  Hannah  E.  Stevenson,  Miss  Ira  E.  Loring,  Mrs.  George  H. 
Shaw,  Mrs.  Martin  Brimmer  and  Mrs.  'William  B.  Rogers.  Miss 
Mary  Felton,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  served  for  a  long  time  with  her 
friend,  Miss  Anna  Lowell,  at  Armory  Square  Hospital,  Washing 
ton.  Miss  Louise  M.  Alcott,  daughter  of  A.  B.  Alcott,  of  Con 
cord,  Mass.,  and  herself  the  author  of  a  little  book  on  "  Hospital 
Scenes/7  as  well  as  other  works,  was  for  some  time  an  efficient 
nurse  in  one  of  the  Washington  hospitals. 

Among  the  leaders  in  the  organization  of  Soldiers7  Aid  Societies 
in  the  smaller  cities  and  towns,  those  ladies  who  gave  the  impulse 
which  during  the  whole  war  vibrated  through  the  souls  of  those 
who  came  within  the  sphere  of  their  influence,  there  are  very 
many  eminently  deserving  of  a  place  in  our  record.  A  few  we 
must  name.  Mrs.  Heyle,  Mrs.  Ide  and  Miss  Swayne,  daughter 
of  Judge  Swayne  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  all  of 
Columbus,  Ohio,  did  an  excellent  work  there.  The  Soldiers' 
Home  of  that  city,  founded  and  sustained  by  their  efforts,  was  one 
of  the  best  in  the  country.  Mrs.  T.  W.  Seward,  of  Utica,  was 
indefatigable  in  her  efforts  for  maintaining  in  its  highest  condition 
of  activity  the  Aid  Society  of  that  city.  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  Cowen  was 
similarly  efficient  in  Hartford,  Conn.  Miss  Long,  at  Rochester,  N. 
Y.,  was  the  soul  of  the  efforts  for  the  soldier  there,  and  her  labors 
were  warmly  seconded  by  many  ladies  of  high  standing  and 
earnest  patriotism.  In  Norwalk,  Ohio,  Mrs.  Lizzie  H.  Farr  was 
one  of  the  most  zealous  coadjutors  of  those  ladies  who  managed 
with  such  wonderful  ability  the  affairs  of  the  Soldiers'  Aid  So 
ciety  of  Northern  Ohio,  at  Cleveland.  To  her  is  due  the  origi 
nation  of  the  Alert  Clubs,  associations  of  young  girls  for  the  pur 
pose  of  working  for  the  soldiers  and  their  families,  which  rapidly 
spread  thence  over  the  country.  Never  flagging  in  her  efforts  for 
100 


794 

the  soldiers,  Mrs.  Farr  exerted  a  powerful  and  almost  electric  in 
fluence  over  the  region  of  which  Norwalk  is  the  centre. 

Equally  efficient,  and  perhaps  exerting  a  wider  influence,  was 
the  Secretary  of  the  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  at  Peoria,  111.,  Miss 
Mary  E.  Bartlett,  a  lady  of  superior  culture  and  refinement,  and 
indefatigable  in  her  exertions  for  raising  supplies  for  the  soldiers, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  the  war.  The  Western  Sani 
tary  Commission  had  no  more  active  auxiliary  out  of  St.  Louis, 
than  the  Soldiers'  Aid  Society  of  Peoria. 

Among  the  ladies  who  labored  for  the  relief  of  the  Freedmen, 
Miss  Sophia  Knight  of  South  Reading,  Mass.,  deserves  a  place. 
After  spending  five  or  six  months  in  Benton  Barracks  Hos 
pital  (May  to  October,  1864)  she  went  to  Natchez,  Miss.,  and 
engaged  as  teacher  of  the  Freedmen,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Western  Sanitary  Commission.  Not  satisfied  with  teaching  the 
colored  children,  she  instructed  also  the  colored  soldiers  in  the 
fort,  and  visited  the  people  in  their  homes  and  the  hospitals  for 
sick  and  wounded  colored  soldiers.  She  remained  in  Natchez  un 
til  May,  1865.  In  the  following  autumn  she  accepted  an  appoint 
ment  from  the  New  England  Freed  man's  Aid  Society  as  teacher 
of  the  Freedmen  in  South  Carolina,  on  Edisto  Island,  where  she 
remained  until  July,  1866;  she  then  returned  to  Boston,  where 
she  is  still  engaged  in  teaching  frecdmen. 

But  time  and  space  would  both  fail  us  were  we  to  attempt  to 
put  on  record  the  tithe  of  names  which  memory  recalls  of  those 
whose  labors  and  sacrifices  of  health  and  life  for  the  cause  of  the 
nation,  have  been  not  less  heroic  or  noble  than  those  of  the  soldiers 
whom  they  have  sought  to  serve.  In  the  book  of  God's  remem 
brance  their  names  and  their  deeds  of  love  and  mercy  are  all  in 
scribed,  and  in  the  great  day  of  reckoning,  when  that  record  shall 
be  proclaimed  in  the  sight  and  hearing  of  an  assembled  universe, 
it  will  be  their  joyful  privilege  to  hear  from  the  lips  of  the 
Supreme  Judge,  the  welcome  words,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these,  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 


INDEX 

OF  NAMES  OF  WOMEN  WHOSE  SERVICES  ARE  RECORDED  IN 

THIS  BOOK. 


ABEHXETHY,  Mrs.  C.,  528. 

Adams,  Miss  H.  A.,  74,  79,  030,  636,  639. 

Adams,  Miss  Martha,  789. 

Adams,  Mrs.  N.,  594. 

Alcott,  Miss  Louise  M.,  793. 

Aldrich,  Mrs.  L.  D.,   790. 

Aldrich,  Milly,  85. 

Allen,  Mrs.  Mary,  790. 

Allen,  Miss  Phebe,  502. 

Allen,  Miss  Sarah,  459,  788. 

Anderson,  Mrs.  Kate  B.,  737. 

Anderson,  Mrs.  llobert,  630,  790. 

Andrews,  Emma.  84. 

Andrews,  Mrs.  Mary,  790. 

Archer,  Mrs.,  79. 

Armstrong,  Miss,  209. 

Babcock,  Miss  Grace,  590. 

Bacon,  Mrs.  Elbridge,  463. 

Bailey,  Mrs.,  301,  731. 

Bailey,  Mrs.  Catharine,  737. 

-Bailey,  Mrs.  Hannah  F.,  737. 

Baily,    Mrs.,  791. 

Baker,  Miss  Delphine  P.,  754-759. 

Bakewell,  Miss.  616. 

Ballard,  Mrs.  M.  I.,  790. 

Balnstier,  Mrs.,  301,  732. 

Barker,  Mrs.  C.  K,  630,  632. 

Barker,  Mrs.  C.  V..  791. 

Barker,  Mrs.  Stephen,  186,  200-211. 

Barlow,  Mrs.  Arabella  Griffith,  88,  225- 

233. 

Barnard,  Mrs.,  664. 
Barnett,  Mrs.,  780. 
Barrows,  Mrs.  Ellen  B.,  737. 
Bartlett,  Miss  Mary  E.,  794. 
Bartlett,  Mrs.  Abner,  84. 
Barton,  Mrs.  Sarah  A.,  790. 
Barton,  Miss  Clara  Harlowe,  73, 1 11-132. 
Baylis.  Mrs.  H.,  528. 
Beck,  Mrs.,  157,  159,  485,  713. 
Bell,  Miss  Annie,  616. 
Bell,  Miss  Susan  J.,  630.  790. 
Bellows,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  302. 
Bennett,  Miss,  780. 


Bennison,  Mrs.  E.  H.,  791. 
Bergen,  Miss  Rebecca.  428. 
Bickerdyke,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  74,  163,  165- 

170.  172-186,  209,  512. 
Bicldle,  Misses,  644. 
Bigclow.  Mrs.  E.  M.,  738-740. 
Billing.  Mrs.  E.  K.,  738,  739. 
Billing.  Miss  Eose  M.,  460,  738,  739,  742. 
Bird,  Miss,  590. 
Bissell,  Miss  Lucy  J..  788. 
Bissell,  Miss  Mary,  616. 
Blackman,  Miss  M.  A.,  429,  430. 
Blackwell,  Miss  Emilv,  527. 
Blackwell,  Miss  Elizabeth,  527,  528,  529. 
Blanchard,  Miss  Anna,  600. 
Blanchard,  Miss  H.,  600. 
Booth,  Mrs.,  769. 
Botta,  Mrs.  Vincenzo,  528. 
Boyer,  Mrs.  Margaret,  736. 
Bradford,  Miss  Charlotte,  153,  301,  316, 

731.  732. 
Bradley,  Miss  Amy  M.,  212-224,  301,  316, 

584,  732,  748. 

Brady,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  597,  647-9. 
Brayton,  Miss  Mary  Clark,   74,   79,   540, 

"543,  545,  546,  547-552. 
Breckinridge,  Miss  Margaret  E.,  74,  88, 

187,  199,  779. 

Brendell,  Mrs.  E.  C.,  790. 
Brewster,  Mrs.,  664. 
Bridgham.  Mrs.  S.  W.,  531. 
Brimmer,  Mrs.  Martin,  557,  793. 
Broadhead,  Mrs.  Bettie,  632,  791. 
Brooks,  Mrs.  Maria,  790. 
Brownell,  Mrs.  Kady,  773,  774. 
Bryden,  Mrs.,  780. 
Bucklin,  Miss  Sophronia,  791. 

Caldwell.  Mrs.,  792. 
Campbell,  Mrs.  John,  790. 
Campbell,  Mrs.  Lucy  L.,  790. 
Campbell,  Miss  Valeria.  79,  594,  595. 
Canfield,  Mrs.  S.  A.  Martha,  495. 
Carver.  Miss  Anna,  647. 
Cn-y,  Miss  Mary,  459,  787. 

795 


796 


INDEX. 


Case,  Mrs.  Cynthia,  742. 

Cassidy,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,   737. 

Chase.  Miss  Nellie.  644. 

Chapman,  Mrs.  354. 

Chapman,  Miss  G,  P..  714. 

Chipman,  Mrs.  H.  L.,  594. 

Clapp,  Mrs.   Anna  L.,  79,  630,  634-636, 

715,  767,  779. 

Clapp,  Mrs.  Samuel  H.,  599. 
Clark,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  790. 
Clark,  Miss  Eudora,  '458,  788. 
Clark,  Mrs.  Lincoln,  165. 
Colby,  Mrs.  Eobert,  530. 
Colfax,  Mrs.  Harriet  E.,  74,  395-399. 
Collins.  Miss  Ellen,  79,  528,  533,  534,  536. 
Colt,  Mrs.  Henrietta  L.,  79.  568,  586,  607, 

609-613. 

Colwell,  Mrs.  Stephen,  643. 
Conrad,  Mrs.  R.  E.,  377. 
Constant.  Mrs.  Nettie  C.,  714. 
Coolidge,  Mrs.  C.  P.,  791. 
Combs,  Mrs.  Sarah,  715. 
Comstock,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  S.,  792. 
Cowen,  Mrs.  Sarah  J.,  793. 
Courteney,  Mrs.  Mary,  737. 
Cox,  Miss  Caroline.  788. 
Cozzens,  Mrs.  W.  F.,  790. 
Craighead,  Miss  Rebecca  M.,  790. 
Crawshaw,  Mrs.  Joseph,  630,  715. 
Curtis,  Mrs.  George,  537. 
Curtiss,  Mrs.  E.,  791. 

Dada,  Miss  Hattie  A.,  431-439. 
Dame,  Mrs.  Harriet  B.,  792. 
Dana,  Miss  Emily  W.,  456,  462. 
Davis,  Miss  Clara,  295,  400-403,  480. 
Davis,  Mrs.  E.  W.,  790. 
Davis,  Mrs.  G.  T.   M.,  352-356,  666,  680. 
Davis,  Mrs.  Samuel  C.,  630,  790. 
Day,  Mrs.  Juliana,  789. 
Debenham,  Miss  Anna  M.,  630,  790. 
Delafield,  Mrs.  Louisa  M.,  607. 
Denham,  Mrs.  Z.,  644. 
Detmold,  Miss  Z.  T.,  537. 
Divers,  Bridget,  480,  593,  771-773. 
Dix,  Miss  Dorothea  L.,  71,   97-108,  134, 

274,  290,  431,  432,  449,  472,  478,  512, 

579. 

Dodge,  Mrs.,  664. 
Don  Carlos,  Mrs.  Minnie,  780. 
D'Oremieulx,  Mrs.  T.,  528,  531. 
Dougherty,  Miss  Deborah,  790. 
Duane,  Miss  M.  M.,  599. 
Dunlap,  Miss  S.  B.,  599. 
Dupee,  Miss.  Mary  E.,  456,462,  463.464. 
Dykeman,  Mrs.  M.  J.,  790. 

Eaton,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  463,  507,  508. 
Eaton,  Mrs.  Lucien,  715. 
Edgar,  Mrs.  T.  D.,  791. 
Edson,  Mrs.  Sarah  P.,'  440-447. 
Edwards,  Miss,  780. 
Elkinton.  Mrs.  Anna  A.,  737. 
Elliott,  Miss  Melcenia,  74,  380-384. 


Ellis.  Mrs.  Mary.   790. 
Ellis,  Miss  Ruth  L.,  458,  787. 
Ely.  Mrs.  Charles  L.,  630. 
Ely,  Mrs.  Dr.,  791. 
Englemann,  Mrs.  Mary,  791. 
Etheridge,  Mrs.  Annie,  218,  301,  593.  747 
-753. 


Fales,  Mrs.  Almira,  73,  279-283, 449, 450, 

483,  677. 

Fales,  Miss,  791. 
Farr,  Mrs   Lizzie  H.,  793. 
Fellows,  Mrs.  W.  M.,  530. 
Felton,  Miss  Mary,  793. 
Femington,  Mrs.  Sarah,  736. 
Fenn.  Mrs.  Curtis  T..  660-070. 
Fernald,  Mrs.  James  E..  463. 
Ferris,  Mrs..  790. 
Field,  Mrs.  David  Dudley,  88. 
Field,  Mrs.  Mary  E.,  737. 
Field,  Miss,  737. 
Field,  Mrs.  C.  W.,  528. 
Field,  Mrs.  Samuel,  599. 
Filley,  Mrs.  Chauncey  L,  790. 
Fish,  Mrs.  Hamilton,"  528,  529. 
Fisk,  Mrs.  Clinton  B.,  713,  790. 
Flanders,  Mrs.  Benj.,  780. 
Flanders,  Miss  Fanny,  780. 
Flanders,  Miss  Florence,  780. 
Fogg,  Mrs.  Mary  R.,  715. 
Fogg,  Mrs.  Isabella,  463,  506-510. 
Fol'lett,  Mrs.  Joseph  E.,  590. 
Foote,  Miss  Kate,  418. 
Ford,  Miss  Charlotte,  459,  788. 
Fox,  Miss  Harriet,  463. 
Francis,  Miss  Abby,  209. 
Frederick,  Mrs.  M.  L.,  599. 
Freeman,  Mrs.  Olive,  790. 
Fremont,  Mrs.  Jessie  B.,  274,  790. 
Frietchie,  Barbara,  522,  761-763,  767. 
Furness,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  599. 

Gage,  Mrs.  Frances  Dana,  683-690. 

Gardiner.  Miss  M.,  301.  732. 

George,  Mrs.  E.  E.,   511-513. 

Gibbons,  Mrs.  A.  H.,  467-476.  7<S8. 

Gibbons,  Miss  Sarah  H.,  467-476. 

Gibson,  Mrs.  E.  0.,  396,  399,  790. 

Gibson,  Mrs.  Peter,  792. 

Gillespie,  Mrs.  E.  D.,  599. 

Gillis,  Miss  Agnes,  459,  787. 

Gilson,  Miss   Helen   L.,  71.  73.  80,  81, 

133-148,  232,  301,  316,  713,  732. 
Glover,  Miss  Eliza  S.,  630. 
Gove,  Miss  Emily,  459,  788. 
Graff,  Mrs.  C.,  599. 
Gray,  Mrs.  Caroline  E.,  789. 
Greble,  Mrs.  Edwin,  503,  504. 
Green,  Mrs.,  736. 
Grier,  Mrs.  Maria  C.,  597-599,  600,  601, 

779. 

Griffin,  Mrs.  Josephine  R,,  707-709. 
Griffin,  Mrs.  William  Preston,  301,  316, 

528,  529,  530,  534. 


INDEX. 


797 


Grover,  Mrs.  Mary,  736. 
Grover,  Mrs.  Priscilla,  736. 

Grover,  Miss,  737. 
Guest,  Mrs.,  459,  787. 

Hagar,  Mrs.  C.  C.,  704,  790. 

Hagar,  Miss  Sarah  J.,  704.  706. 

Haines.  Mrs.  Hannah  A..  790. 

Hall.  Miss  Maria  M.  C..  157,  247,  290.  401, 

448-454,  456.  457,  460,  483,  485,  644. 
Hall,  Miss  Susan  E.,  431-439. 
Halbert,  Mrs.  M.  E..  791. 
Hallowell,  Mrs.  M.  M.,  710-712. 
Hancock,   Miss   Cornelia,   284-286,  487, 

644. 

Harlan,  Mrs.  James,  676,  678. 
Harmon.  Miss  Amelia,  777.  778. 
Harris,  Mrs.  John,  72.   73,  79.  149-160, 

367,  450,  482,  483,  485,  596,  643,  644, 
'     645,  713. 

Harris,  Miss  W.  F..  742,  743. 
Hart,  Miss  E.  A.,  791. 
Hartshorne,  Miss  Isabella  M.,  790. 
Harvey,  Mrs.   Cordelia  A.   P.,   73,  164, 

260-268.  729. 

Harwood,  Miss  C.  A.,  790. 
Hawley,  Miss  E.  P..  600. 
Hawley,  Mrs.  Harriet  Foote,  416-419, 

513,  713. 

Hazard,  Mrs.,  790. 
Helmbold,  Mrs.  Eliza,  737. 
Heyle,  Mrs.,  793. 
Hickox.  Mrs.  J.  E.,  790. 
Hicks,  Mrs.,  791. 
Hoadley,  Mrs.  George,  79. 
Hoes,  Mrs.  H.  F.,  713. 
Hodge,  Mrs.,  780. 
Hoge,  Mrs.  A.  H.,  74,  79,  178,  561/5fi2- 

576,  580,  583,  585.  589,  610. 
Holden,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  791. 
Holland,  Miss  Sarah,  736. 
Holmes,  Mrs.  Amelia  L.,  793. 
Holmes.  Miss  Belle,  630. 
Holstein.  Mrs.  William  H.,  251-259. 
Home,  Miss  Jessie,  422.  427,  428,  480. 
Hooper,  Mrs.  Lucy  H.,  764. 
Horton,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  737. 
Hosmer,  Mrs.  0.  E.,  719-724. 
Houghton.  Mrs.,  790. 
Howe,  Miss  Abbie  J.,  458,  465,  466 
Howe,  Mrs.  Charles,  780. 
Howe.  Mrs.  T.  0.,  164. 
Howell,  Mrs.,  780. 

How-land,  Mrs.  Eliza  W.,  301.  324-326. 
Howland,  Mrs.  Robert  S.,  88,  326,  327. 
Humphrey,  Miss,  164. 
Husband.  Mrs.  Mary  Morris,  157,  287- 

298,  301,  316,  401,  451,  483,  485,  486, 

507,  596. 

Ide,  Mrs.,  793. 

Ives,  Mrs.  John,  791. 

Jackson.  Mrs.  Margaret  A.,  607. 
Jessup,  Mrs.  A.  D./599. 


Johnson,  Miss  Addie  E.,  399. 

Johnson,  Miss  Ida,  790. 

Johnson,  Mrs.  J.  Warner,  599. 

Johnson,  Mrs.,  209,  210. 

Johnston,  Mrs.  Sarah  E.,  269-272,  779. 

Jones,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  791. 

Jones,  Miss  Hetty  A. ,'783,  786. 

Jones,  Mrs.  Joel,  79,  643. 

Josslyn,  Miss  Maria,  459,  787. 

Kellogg,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  630. 

King,  Miss  E.  M.,  789. 

King,  Mrs.  Washington,  630,  791. 

King.  Mrs.  Wyllys,  791. 

Kirchner,  Mrs.  Dr.,  780. 

Kirkland.  Mrs.  Caroline  M.,  88,  528. 

Knight,  Miss  A.  M.,  705. 

Knight,  Miss  Sophia,  794. 

Krider,  Miss,  737. 

Lane,  Miss  Adeline  A.,  789. 

Lane.  Mrs.  David,  530,  537. 

Latham,  Mrs.  P.  C.,  791. 

Lathrop,  Mrs.  L.  E.,  790. 

Lathrop,  Mrs.,  599. 

Leach,  Mrs.  Lydia,  790. 

Ledergerber,  Miss  Charlotte,  790. 

Lee,  Miss  Amanda,  480,  48P,  737. 

Lee,   Mrs".   Mary   W.,   73,   157,    480-488, 

596,  644.  647,  733,  737. 
Little,  Miss  Anna  P.,  647. 
Livermore,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  74,  7^  85. 

178.  359,  561,  566,  569,  577-589,  >10. 
Long,  Miss,  793. 
Loring,  Miss  Ira  E.,  557.  793. 
Lovejoy,  Miss  Sarah  E.  M.,  714, 
Lovell.  Miss  S.  E.,  788. 
Lowell,  Miss  Anna,  792,  793. 
Lowell,  Mrs.,  792. 
Lowry,  Mrs.  Ellen  J.,  736. 
Ludlow,  Mrs.  Mary,  790. 

McCabe,  Miss.  791. 
McClintock,  Miss  Clara,  790. 
McCliiitock,  Miss  Marian,  790. 
McCracken,  Miss  Sarah  F..  790. 
McEwen,  Mrs.  Hetty  M.,  764-766,  767. 
McFadden,  Miss  Eachel  W..  79,  616. 
McKay,  Mrs.  Charlotte  E.,  514-516. 
McMeens,  Mrs.  Anna  C.,  491,  492. 
McMillan.  Mrs..  616. 
McNair,  Miss  Carrie  C.,  790. 
Maertz,  Miss  Louisa,  74,  390-394. 
Maltby.  Mrs.  F.  F.,  630. 
Mann,  Miss  Maria  E.,  697-703. 
Marsh.  Mrs.  M.  M.,  534.  621-629. 
Marshall.  Miss  Fanny,  790. 
Mason,  Mrs.  Emily,  737. 
May,  Miss  Abby  W.,  79,  554-557. 
Mayhew,  Mrs.  Euth  S..  463,  506. 
Melvin.  Mrs.  S.  H..  791. 
Mendenhall,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  S.,  79,  494. 

617-620. 

Menefee.  Mrs..  792. 
Merrill,  Mrs.  Eunice  D.,  457,  462. 


798 


INDEX. 


Merritt.  Mrs.,  302. 

Mills,  Mrs.,  780. 

Mitchell,  Miss  Ellen  E.,  420-426. 

Molineaux,  Miss,  791. 

Moore,  Mrs.  Clara  J..  597,  599. 

Moore,  Mrs.,  (of  Knoxville,  Tenn.),  767, 

768. 

Morris,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  790. 
Morris,  Miss,  354,  496. 
Morris,  Miss  Eachcl  W.,  600. 
Moss,  Miss  M.  J.,  600. 
Munsell,  Mrs.  Jane  R.,  522.  523. 
Murdoch,  Miss  Ellen  E.,  616,  633. 

Nash,  Miss  C.,  537. 
Nelson.  Mrs.  H.  A.,  791. 
Newhall,  Miss  Susan,  456,  461,  464. 
Nichols,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  A.,  790. 
Noye,  Miss  Helen  M.,  456,  459. 
Nutt,  Mrs.  J.,  791. 

Ogden,  Mrs.  Dorothea,  790. 
Oliver,  Mrs.,  664. 
Ostram,  Miss  N.  L..  790. 
Otis,  Miss  Louisa,  790. 
Otis,  Mrs.  Mary,  790. 

Page,  Miss  Eliza,  631. 

Page,  Mrs.  E.  J..  791. 

Painter,  Mrs.  Hetty  K.,  644,  647. 

Palmer,  Mrs.  Mary  E.,  81,  88,  630,  640- 

642. 

Palmer,  Mrs.  John,  594. 
Pancoast.  Mrs.,  656. 
Parrish,  Mrs.  Lydia  G..  362-373,  599. 
Parsons,   Miss    Emily   E.,    74,    273-278, 

382,  489.  502,  788. 
Partridge,  Mrs.  George,  791. 
Patrick,  Miss  Jane,  791. 
Peabody,  Miss  Harriet,  790. 
Peabody,  Mrs.,  790. 
Penfield,  Miss,  792. 
Pettes,  Miss  Mary  Dwight,  385-389. 
Phelps,  Mrs.  John  S.,'520.  521,  713,  779. 
Pierson,  Miss  Mary.  457,  462. 
Phillips,  Miss  Harriet  N.,  790. 
Pinkham,  Miss,  644. 
Plummer,  Mrs.  Eliza  G.,  73,  88,  735. 
Plummer,  Mrs.  S.  A.,  396,  399. 
Pomeroy,  Mrs.  Lucy  G.,  88,  691-696. 
Pomeroy,  Mrs.  Robert,  664. 
Porter,  Mrs.  Eliza  C.,  74,   161-171,  174, 

182,  183,  185.  186,  209,  512,  560. 
Porter,  Miss  Elizabeth  L.,  791. 
Post,  Miss  A.,  537. 
Post,  Mrs.  T.  M.,  630,  791. 
Preble,  Mrs.  William,  463. 

Quimby,  Miss  Almira,  456-462. 

Reese,  Mrs.  A.,  790. 
Reid,  Mrs.  H.  A.,  790. 
Reifsnyder,  Miss  Hattie  S.,  742. 
Reynolds,  Mrs.  J.  P.,  791. 


Rexford,  Misses,  792. 

Rich,  Miss,  370. 

Richardson,  Mrs.,  780. 

Ricketts,  Mrs.  Fanny  L.,  480,  517-519. 

Robinson,  Miss  Belle,  742. 

Rogers,  Mrs.  William  B.,  557,  793. 

Ross,  Miss  Anna  Maria,  88,  343-351,  644, 

733. 

Rouse,  Mrs.  B.,  79,  540,  544,  545. 
Royer,  Miss  Alice  F.,  713. 
Russell,  Mrs.  E.  A.,  679. 
Russell,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  477-479. 
Russell,  Mrs.  C.  E.,  792. 


Safford,  Miss  Mary  J.,  163,  357-361. 

Sager,  Mrs.,  790. 

Salomon,  Mrs.  Eliza,  613,  614. 

Salter,  Mrs.  J.  D.  B.,  791. 

Sampson,  Mrs.,  644. 

Schaums,  Mrs.,  791. 

Schuyler,  Mrs.  G.  L.,  528. 

Schuyler,  Miss  Louisa  Lee,  79,  532,  534, 

5"37. 

Selby,  Mrs.  Paul.  791. 
Seward,  Mrs.  T.  W.,  793. 
Seymour,  Mrs.  Horatio,  79,  590-592. 
Sharpless,  Miss  Hattie  R..  741-743. 
Shattuck,  Mrs.  Anna  M.,  790. 
Shaw,  the  Misses,  537. 
Shaw,  Mrs.  G.  H.,  557,  793. 
Sheffield,  Miss  Mary  E.,  714. 
Sheads,  Miss  Carrie,  776,  777. 
Shephard,  Miss  N.  A.,  790. 
Sibley,  Miss  S.  A.,  594. 
Small,  Mrs.  Jerusha  C.,  493,  494. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Aubrey  H.,  599. 
Smith.  Mrs.  Hannah,  736. 
Smith,  Mrs.,  792. 
Smith,  Mrs.' Eliza  J.,  737. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Rebecca  S.,  789. 
Snell,  Mrs.  L.,  791. 
Spaulding  Miss  Jennie  Tileston,  789. 
Spencer,  Mrs.  R.  H.,  404-115. 
Springer,  Mrs.  C.  R.,  80,  630,  639,  640. 
Starr,  Mrs.  Lucy  E.,  713,  728-730. 
Starbuck,  Mrs.  C.  W..  792. 
Stearns,  Mrs.  S.  Burger,   760. 
Steel,  Mrs..  209. 
Sterling,  Mrs.  Florence  P.,  790. 
Stetler.  Mrs.  M.  A..  790. 
Stevens,  Miss  Gertude,   537. 
Stevens,  Miss  Melvina,  782. 
Stevens,  Mrs.  N.,  715. 
Stevenson,  Miss  Hannah  E.,  793. 
Steward,  Miss  Ella,  616. 
Stille,  Mrs.  Charles  J.,  599. 
Stone,  Mrs.  R.  H.,  791. 
Stoneberger,  Mrs..  791. 
Stranahan,  Mrs.  Mariamne  F.,  79,  537, 

651-658. 

Streeter,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  M.,  655-659. 
Strong,  Mrs.  George  T.,  301. 
Swett,  Mrs.  J.  A.,  528. 
Swayne,  Miss,  793. 


INDEX. 


799 


Tannehill,  Mrs.  Arabella,  789. 
Taylor,  Miss  Alice,  239,  240,  768,  769. 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Nellie  Maria.  234,  240,  779, 

780. 

Terry,  Miss  Ellen  F.,  540,  543,  546,  547. 
Tevis,  Mrs.  J.,  599. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  E.,  496. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  (of  New  Orleans),  780. 
Thompson,  Miss  Kate  P.,  458,  788. 
Tick  nor,  Miss  Anna,  557. 
Ticknor,  Mrs.  George,  323,  557. 
Tiles  ton,  Miss  Jennie,  789. 
Tiltou,  Miss  Catherine,  791. 
Tilton,  Mrs.  Lucretia  Jane.  791. 
Tinkham,  Mrs.  Smith,  720,  722. 
Titcomb,  Miss  Louise,  247,  453.  456,  461, 

463. 

Titlow.  Mrs.  Effie,  522.  767. 
Tompkins.  Miss  Cornelia  M..  489,  490. 
Trotter.  Mrs.  Laura,  301. 
Turchin,  Madame,  480,  770,  771. 
Tyler,  Mrs.  Ada-line,  241-250,  453,  456, 

461.  464. 
Tyson,  Miss,  157.  159,  485,  713. 

Usher,  Miss  Eebecca  E.,  456,  461,  463. 

Vance,  Miss  Mary,  429,  430. 
Vanderkieft,  Mrs.  Dr.,  247. 

Wade,  Mrs.  Jennie,  88,  775,  776. 
Wade,  Mrs.  Mary  B.,  736. 
Walker,  Miss  Adeline,  456,  457,  462. 
Wallace,  Miss,  209. 
Wallace,  Mrs.  Martha  A.,  73. 


Ward,  Mrs.  Anne,  790. 

Ward,  Mrs.  S.  E.,  791. 

Waterbury,  Miss  Kate  E.,  651,  658. 

Waterman,  Mrs.,  644. 

Webber,  Mrs.  E.  M..  790. 

Weed,  Mrs.   H.  M.,  715. 

Wells,  Mrs.  Shepard,  497.  498,  779. 

Whetten,  Miss  Harriet  Douglas,  301.  316, 

322. 

Whitaker,  Miss  Mary  A.,  714. 
Wibrey,  Mrs.,  780. 
Willets,  Miss  Georgia-na,  791. 
Williams,  Miss,  245. 
Wiswall,  Miss  Hattie,  725-727. 
Witherell,  Mrs.  E.  C.,  499-501. 
Wittenmeyer,  Mrs.  Annie,  374-379,509.. 
Wolcott,  Miss  Ella,  459,  788. 
Wolfley,  Mrs.,  780. 
Wolfley.  Miss  Carrie,  780. 
Wood,  "Mrs.  Lucretia  P.,  791. 
Woods,  Mrs.  William.  792. 
Woolsey.  Miss  Georgiana  M.,  301,   303, 

322,323.  324,  327-342,  472. 
Woolsey.  Miss  Jane  Stuart,  322,  324,  342, 

472,  713. 

Woolsey,  Miss  Sarah  C.,  322,  342. 
Woolsey.  Mrs.,  328. 
Wormeley.  Miss   Katharine  P.,  80,  301, 

303,  318-323,  327,  480. 
Wright,  Mrs.  Crafts  J.,  791. 

Young,  Miss  M.  A.  B.,  459. 
Zimmermann,  Mrs.,  791. 


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